Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station | |
---|---|
Official name | Exelon Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station |
Country | United States |
Location | Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 40°9′14″N 76°43′29″W / 40.15389°N 76.72472°W |
Status | Being decommissioned |
Construction began | Unit 1: May 18, 1968 Unit 2: November 1, 1969 |
Commission date | Unit 1: September 2, 1974 Unit 2: December 30, 1978 |
Decommission date | Unit 1: September 20, 2019 Unit 2: March 28, 1979 |
Construction cost | $1.557 billion (2007 USD)[1] ($2.00 billion in 2023 dollars[2]) |
Owner(s) | Unit 1: Constellation Energy Unit 2: EnergySolutions |
Operator(s) | Constellation Energy |
Employees | 725 (2017)[3] |
Nuclear power station | |
Reactor type | PWR |
Reactor supplier | Babcock & Wilcox |
Cooling towers | 4 × Natural Draft |
Cooling source | Susquehanna River |
Thermal capacity | 1 × 2568 MWth |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 1 × 819 MW |
Make and model | B&W LLP (DRYAMB) |
Units decommissioned | 1 × 880 MW |
Nameplate capacity | 819 MW |
Capacity factor | 95.65% (2017) 73.25% (lifetime) |
Annual net output | 7.3 TWh (2018) 245.12 TWh (lifetime)[4] |
External links | |
Website | www |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (commonly abbreviated as TMI) is a closed nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island[a] in Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg. It has two separate units, TMI-1 (owned by Constellation Energy) and TMI-2 (owned by EnergySolutions).[6]
The plant was the site of the most significant accident in United States commercial nuclear energy when, on March 28, 1979, TMI-2 suffered a partial meltdown. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report, the accident resulted in no deaths or injuries to plant workers or in nearby communities.[7] Follow-up epidemiology studies did not find causality between the accident and any increase in cancers.[8][9][10][11] One work-related death has occurred on-site during decommissioning.[12]
The reactor core of TMI-2 has since been removed from the site, but the site has not been fully decommissioned.[13] In July 1998, Amergen Energy (now Exelon Generation) agreed to purchase TMI-1 from General Public Utilities for $100 million.[14]
The plant was originally built by General Public Utilities Corporation, later renamed GPU Incorporated.[15] The plant was operated by Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed), a subsidiary of the GPU Energy division. In 2001, GPU Inc. merged with FirstEnergy Corporation.[16] On December 18, 2020, FirstEnergy transferred Unit 2's license to EnergySolutions' subsidiary, TMI-2 Solutions, after receiving approval from the NRC.[17]
Exelon was operating Unit 1 at a financial loss since 2015.[18] In 2017, the company said it would consider ceasing operations at Unit 1 because of high costs unless there was action from the Pennsylvania government.[19][20] Unit 1 officially shut down at noon on September 20, 2019.[21]
Unit 1 decommissioning is expected to be completed in 2079 and will cost $1.2 billion.[22][23] Unit 2, which has been dormant since the accident in 1979, is expected to close in 2052.[24]
Thyroid cancer incidence has not increased in Dauphin County, the county in which TMI is located. York County demonstrated a trend toward increasing thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1995, approximately 15 years after the TMI accident. Lancaster County showed a significant increase in thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1990. These findings, however, do not provide a causal link to the TMI accident.
RESULTS: A modest association was found between postaccident cancer rates and proximity (OR = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.3, 1.6). After adjusting for a gradient in cancer risk prior to the accident, the odds ratio contrasting those closest to the plant with those living farther out was 1.2 (95% CI = 1.0, 1.4). A postaccident increase in cancer rates near the Three Mile Island plant was notable in 1982, persisted for another year, and then declined. Radiation emissions, as modeled mathematically, did not account for the observed increase.
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