Natural and Man-Made Disasters | What Happened At Three Mile Island?
What happened at Three Mile Island?
The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is located outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, less than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Philadelphia and New York City. On March 28, 1979, an atomic reactor at the plant over-heated and released a small amount of radiation into the air. Hydrogen (a gas) created by the reactor accumulated in one of the buildings, which then exploded. Technicians managed to contain the reactor so it did not melt down. If it had melted down, the superhot material inside the reactor would have burned through the bottom of the plant into the ground until it hit water. After reaching the water the superheated material would have created the steam that would have erupted, spewing large quantities of radiation into the air. Although this worst-case scenario did not take place because technicians managed to stop the crisis, some radioactive material was released into the...
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