#Reactor meltdown 2 review movie

People were now rallying in support of shutting down the TMI nuclear plant completely and calling for an end to the use of nuclear power for commercial purposes. Within days, accounts of internal as well as skin-related anomalies and radiation sickness were reported by many, especially along the banks of the nearby Susquehanna River. Although the crisis was averted, and regulations regarding the shutdown of schools and public places were lifted, it was now time for serious conversations regarding how the accident had been caused and what sort of radioactive effect it had left on the people. President Jimmy Carter also personally visited the site in an attempt to provide support to residents around the power plant, but the authorities soon had to let out harmful gasses through a method of venting, i.e., by letting out radioactive gasses into the open air, in order to avoid any explosion. This creates a tremendous panic among citizens who start moving away from their homes and lives in order to keep themselves safe from the imminent danger.

News shows are now widely covering the matter, which, if it goes wrong, could make the entire Pennsylvania state and possibly a huge part of the US east coast inhabitable for decades. The fear regarding the hydrogen anomaly inside the reactor grows, as noted physicist Michio Kaku (an interviewee in the series) claims that the possibility was similar to the later incident that happened in Chernobyl in 1986. What Had Caused The Explosion? How Much Was The Authority’s Negligence Involved? Although the core temperatures were managed back to normalcy by the third day, a new and deadlier threat now posed itself, as a hydrogen bubble was discovered inside the reactor, which could explode to devastating effects. Tremendous chaos ensues, as residents are given very confusing and conflicting advice regarding keeping themselves safe, and the Pennsylvania State government finds out that the federal body in control of nuclear safety, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), itself, had a split in it with regards to the matter of Three Mile Island. Despite rising radiation levels, the government remained skeptical about calling for an evacuation yet, as that would disrupt public life terribly.

#Reactor meltdown 2 review movie

This was further aggravated by a bizarre coincidence-a disaster movie called “The China Syndrome” had come out just twelve days ago, which had shown the catastrophe that can hit if there is a nuclear meltdown at a power plant. The company owning the site, MetEd, shut down the reactor and reported the incident to be a minor matter without any safety hazard to the community living close by, to both the government and the press.īut news of radiation leaks found in the form of radioactive iodine found in a nearby location got out, and there was gradually a state of fear among citizens living in the Middletown locality, very close to the power plant. Things started getting worse pretty soon, when high levels of radiation were also noticed in the unit 2 building, and then gradually throughout the premises. This was causing a loss of any freshwater across the reactor, which kept heating up rapidly, and it was also heating up the standing water around it towards boiling temperatures. Soon, a radiation protection supervisor was brought into the facility, and the operators now realized that a release valve in the reactor coolant chamber was stuck open and could not be shut back off. It is made very evident by the interviewees who talk about the incident in the present in front of the documentary crew, that cutting off coolant from a heating nuclear reactor is the worst thing to do at any time. Noticing the rising core temperature in the reactor and the level of water in the chamber shown to be almost full, one of the operators called for shutting down the pumps taking water into the reactor to cool it down. Despite multiple operators being present in the control room, the odd timing of the event, and also the unprecedented nature of it, left all workers confused and baffled about what was actually happening. On the morning of March 28th, 1979, numerous alarms started going off simultaneously in the control room of unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. What is ‘Meltdown: Three Mile Island’ about?