The China Syndrome:Three Mile Island and Nuclear Energy in the United States

Ari TepperHistory 285Section 003

Growth Of Nuclear Power

• President Eisenhower• Atoms for Peace delivered to UN General Assembly,1953

• Shippingport Atomic Power Station• First full scale commercial plant• Design borrowed heavily from US Navy

• More than 800 weapons test in US between1946 and 1979

Three Mile Island (TMI)• Pressurized Water Reactor

• 30 years of collective operating experience• Only operating at full power for 40 days• Rushed into service

• Human error compounded by bad designs• Releases less than background levels• Complex systems are prone to accidents, not limited to nuclear

power generation

• No Evacuation Order• Pregnant women and children under 5 within 50 miles• 100,000 people left their homes anyways

• Cleanup cost over 1 billion USD

Industry Trends

• Slowdown of growth of demand by 1975• 40% nuclear plants canceled before TMI

• Competitive Market• Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA),

1978 • Rising Costs and longer construction times

• TMI only exacerbated trends• France, Germany, and UK

Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant

Fears of the Future

• Cold War• nuclear submarines carrying nuclear missiles

• Energy Concerns and Crises• 1973 & 1979• Plant construction eventually recovered

• Societal acceptance but lacking personal acceptability• Polls show increases in wanting plants, but decreases in wanting them near

the poll takers• Completed plants in PA would have made up 40% of grid

USS Sam Rayburn c. 1964