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Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station

"Three Mile Island" redirects here. For the 1979 partial core meltdown, see Three Mile Island accident. For other uses, see Three Mile Island (disambiguation).

Crane Clean Energy Center ( formerly Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station)
The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, circa 1979
Three Mile Island in 2019, prior to shutdown.
Map
Official nameCrane Clean Energy Center
CountryUnited States
LocationLondonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates40°9′14″N 76°43′29″W / 40.15389°N 76.72472°W / 40.15389; -76.72472
StatusShut down (restart planned)
Construction beganUnit 1: May 18, 1968
Unit 2: November 1, 1969
Commission dateUnit 1: September 2, 1974
Unit 2: December 30, 1978
Decommission dateUnit 1: September 20, 2019
Unit 2: March 28, 1979
Construction cost$1.557 billion (2007 USD)[1]
($2.00 billion in 2023 dollars[2])
OwnersUnit 1: Constellation Energy
Unit 2: EnergySolutions
OperatorConstellation Energy
Employees725 (2017)[3]
Nuclear power station
Reactor typePWR
Reactor supplierBabcock & Wilcox
Cooling towers4 × Natural Draft
Cooling sourceSusquehanna River
Thermal capacity1 × 2568 MWth
Power generation
Make and modelB&W LLP (DRYAMB)
Units decommissioned1 × 880 MW, 1 × 819 MW ( restart planned )
Nameplate capacity819 MW
Capacity factor95.65% (2017)
73.25% (lifetime)
Annual net output7.3 TWh (2018)
245.12 TWh (lifetime)[4]
External links
Websitewww.constellationenergy.com/our-company/locations/decommissioning.html
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (commonly abbreviated as TMI) is a shut-down 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 was expected to be completed in 2079 and would have cost $1.2 billion,[22][23] but in September 2024, Constellation Energy, the owner of the Unit, announced plans to invest $1.6 billion to bring the facility back online. The plant is expected to resume operations in 2028.[24] The entirety of the plant's energy output will be sold to Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement to purchase as much electricity as possible from the plant, which will support the company’s growing energy needs for its expanding network of data centers.[25]

Unit 2, which has been dormant since the accident in 1979, is expected to close in 2052.[26]

  1. ^ "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". www.eia.gov. United States Energy Information Administration. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  2. ^ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  3. ^ "Three Mile Island Generating Station" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 24, 2017.
  4. ^ "PRIS - Reactor Details".
  5. ^ Brubaker, Jack (March 27, 2019). "How did Three Mile Island get its name? It was another mistake! [The Scribbler]". LancasterOnline. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  6. ^ "Damaged Three Mile Island reactor gets a new corporate parent". pennlive. June 1, 2022. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  7. ^ "Fact Sheet on the Three Mile Island Accident". US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  8. ^ Hatch, Maureen C.; et al. (1990). "Cancer near the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant: Radiation Emissions". American Journal of Epidemiology. 132 (3). Oxford Journals: 397–412. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115673. PMID 2389745.
  9. ^ Levin, R. J. (2008). "Incidence of thyroid cancer in residents surrounding the three mile island nuclear facility". Laryngoscope. 118 (4): 618–628. doi:10.1097/MLG.0b013e3181613ad2. PMID 18300710. S2CID 27337295. 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.
  10. ^ Hatch MC, Wallenstein S, Beyea J, Nieves JW, Susser M (June 1991). "Cancer rates after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and proximity of residence to the plant". American Journal of Public Health. 81 (6): 719–724. doi:10.2105/AJPH.81.6.719. PMC 1405170. PMID 2029040. 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.
  11. ^ "Vermont Legislative Research Shop" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 17, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  12. ^ "Contract Worker Killed in Accident at Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pa., Exelon Says". NBC10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. September 14, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  13. ^ "Accident at Three Mile Island". Policy Almanac. Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  14. ^ "History of Three Mile Island". WHP. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
  15. ^ "GPU, Inc. – Company History". Retrieved April 1, 2009.
  16. ^ "FirstEnergy – Company history". Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2009.
  17. ^ "FAQ". EnergySolutions TMI2. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  18. ^ Thompson, Charles (March 19, 2019). "Save Three Mile Island? What a difference 40 years makes". pennlive.com. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  19. ^ Bade, Gavin (May 30, 2017). "After failing to clear PJM auction, Exelon says Three Mile Island nuke will close in 2019". Utility Dive. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  20. ^ "Middletown – Three mile Island". December 3, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  21. ^ Sholtis, Brett. "Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Shuts Down". Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  22. ^ "Three Mile Island Decommissioning". www.constellationenergy.com. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  23. ^ Phillips, Susan (April 17, 2020). "Pennsylvania Raises Alarms on Transfer of Radioactive Three Mile Island Reactor". State Impact Pennsylvania. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  24. ^ "Microsoft AI Needs So Much Power It's Restarting Site of US Nuclear Meltdown". Bloomberg.com. September 20, 2024. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  25. ^ Plumer, Brad (September 20, 2024). "Three Mile Island Plans to Reopen as Demand for Nuclear Power Grows". New York Times.
  26. ^ "NRC: Three Mile Island – Unit 2". www.nrc.gov. March 24, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2021.


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