A Three Mile Island update

After the accident at Three Mile Island-2 (TMI-2) on March 28, 1979, the plant was left with a damaged reactor core releasing fission products to the coolant; over one million gallons of contaminated water containing over 400,000 curies of cesium and strontium were in the reactor and auxiliary buildings with extensive contamination inside those buildings; and over 40,000 curies of Krypton-85 gas were trapped in the reactor building. Inadequate radioactive waste treatment facilities existed, offsite disposal sites were limited, the public was very concerned and the financial health of the owners became threatened. Now, almost six years later, the situation is much improved. The damaged core decay heat generation is only about 15Kw, with cooling by heat loss to the containment building atmosphere. Adequate shutdown margin is being maintained by keeping about 4,700 ppm boron in the reactor coolant since the low melting point materials in the control rods can no longer be assumed available in the core. The krypton gas has been vented and nearly 400 entries have been made into the reactor building. Remote inspections and samples have been made of the damaged core, the reactor vessel head has been removed, and preparations are underway to remove the plenum structure and any significant quantities of fuel. The contaminated water has been processed through two specially designed demineralizing systems and the activity collected in an ion exchange media which have been shipped offsite for eventual disposal. The remaining TMI-2 cleanup milestones represent the most technically challenging part of the entire program. The financial condition of the plant owners has improved and there is now reasonable assurance of adequate funds to complete this billion dollar cleanup effort