Reflections of a Responder to the Three Mile Island Accident

TMI about TMI

Alan KuehnerApril 29, 2015

TMI units 1 and 2

Why am I here now?

Steve Musolino thought you wouldenjoy some of my stories and invited me

I had fun when I was there and I wanted to share it

Emergency response of all kinds has common elementsMy observations aren’t profound but possibly useful

I have been retired for 17 years and miss you tech folks

About 4:00 AM Wednesday March 28 1979

Plant status Main feedwater pumps tripped Reactor pressure increasing PORV opens to reduce pressure My status Home asleep and blissfully ignorant

PWR review

Significant elements that are not shown: Containment sump pump, Auxiliary building, Auxiliary feedwater pumps, Vent stack

The first few minutes

Plant status PORV indicator shows that it closed but it didn’t Pressurizer tank overfilled and burst its relief diaphragm Core coolant flowed to the containment sump and was pumped into the Auxiliary Building

Control room status Lots of alarms going off Operators were focusing on the wrong ones

Next several hours

Plant Status Operators believed the PORV valve had closed Auxiliary Feedwater Pump valves were closed and their status was not recognized Core partially uncovered, fuel damaged

Offsite status A normal morning

6:56 AM

Plant status Site area emergency declared Plant notifies PEMA Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency PEMA notifies other state and local agencies and Governor

Bureau of Radiation Protection status 7:04 Maggie Reilly and Tom Gerusky were notified

Brookhaven Radiological Assistance Team Status 7:10 call to BNL RAP from Met Ed notifying us of incident 600 R/hr in Aux building They did not request assistance Tony Greenhouse called department head Charles Meinhold

Some players

Charles Meinhold and Tom Gerusky were classmates

Maggie Reilly and I were AEC Fellows under Meinhold at BNL

Tony Greenhouse had been as well a couple of years before

Tony, Maggie, and I were part of a team measuringenvironmental and population radiation dose in theMarshall Islands the year before

Bob Bores had worked at BNL and knew all of us

It’s good to know your team well

Three of us worked together in the Marshall Islands

7:24 to 8:45Reactor statusGeneral emergency declared

BNL statusTeam members were notified, arriving , being briefed, and gathering equipment

DOE Brookhaven Area Office statusDave Schweller notified DOE Germantown of “substantial”problem at TMI and recommended a RAP team responseDOE Brookhaven Area Office alerted Coast Guard for transportBob Bores NRC called Schweller but did not request RAP assistance

Why are many people reluctant to ask for help?

8:45- 10:30

BNL StatusTeam and equipment are readySchweller and Meinhold decide to call PA BRP to offer assistanceCoast Guard helicopter is standing by

TMI area statusTeams from Met Ed and BRP find 3 mR/hr off siteBRH teams report high Iodine levels

AMS/NEST StatusTeam at Andrews AFB readying radiation monitoring helicopterTheir initial notification said accident was at Nine Mile IslandSo they took quadrangle maps for both TMI and Nine Mile Point

11:00NRC and AMS/NEST statusBob Bores requests the helicopter from Andrews AFB

11:18BRP and BNL RAP statusMaggie says “Alright Charlie, why don’t you come on down.”Which he interpreted as send the BNL RAP Team

DOE HQ statusCoordinating separate requests for assistance from NRC and PA BRP

Early afternoon

BNL RAP statusLoading gear and personnel onto Coast Guard helicopter.Loading more gear and more personnel into vehicles

Andrews AMS/NEST statusLoading gear and personnel onto AMS helicopterLoading more gear and more personnel into vehicles

Coast guard SH-3 Sea King rescue helicopter

On board helicopter5 Flight crew1 DOE BAO and 7 BNL RAP health physicistsSurvey instruments, BNL noble gas iodine monitorMCA, electronics and NaI detector

Second BNL RAP team in vanOne health physicist and 3 HP techsMore radiation measuring equipment and lead shielding

Takeoff

Near miss

Rotor blade failure?

Can’t land there

Arrive at Capital City Airport

Helicopter contamination check

AMS/NEST from Andrews also there

Wednesday evening

Working from BRP in Harrisburg

Initial DOE RAP surveys Rad reading, vegetation, soil, air, water, and location Are we lost?

It would be good to know the territory We didn’t

We were using gas station maps and reporting by pay phone when we could find one

This resembles the maps we were using

About midnight

We found the plume

It is starting to get real

First real test of the Silver Gel sampler

Silver loaded silica gel media

Can use charcoal media

5 CFM regulated sampling rate

120 V AC or 12 V DC power

Sampler and readout discriminate against noble gas

Sensitive field readout

Silver Gel sampler and readout

Wee hours of Thursday morning

BRP and RAP status

Sample counting and analysis

Is there Iodine?

Dose assessment begun

Next priority, find a bed

Earlier on WednesdayThe AMS/NEST Andrews team at the Capital City Airport

Started making monitoring flightsFound unused offices and work spacesGot phones installedSet up a command center

Thursday MorningThe second BNL RAP contingent, well restedBegan ground surveysBettis RAP team arrives, sets up shop at Capital City Airportand begins ground surveys

Teams tried to distinguish amongOverhead plumeImmersion in plume andGround deposition

Thursday Morning news

China Syndrome released 12 days before

Not all were outrageous

Just like cable news and the internet

Pay attention to the source

Thursday

Monitoring was well covered Bettis team on scene Knolls team on the way AMS/NEST team coming from Las Vegas

Noble gas but no Iodine or Cesium had been detectedOff site rad levels were low

BNL’s first RAP team worked part of the day Decided we weren’t needed Went back to Long Island

BNL’s second team left Friday morning

Friday afternoon Back at BNL

We were not authorized tospeak for the DOE but we tookthe opportunity to “teach”the reporter about Curies, radsreactors, and answer generalquestions while he was waiting for an official statement

It seems to have been useful if you look at his later reporting

Teach whenever you can.

Befriend a media person now, so they have a trusted source

Friday 8:00 AM

1200 mRem measured in the environment

It was taken by a Met Ed helicopter over the Vent Stack during a planned release

Washington officials thought it was at ground level in Goldsboro

Let’s go into full over reaction mode!

Axiom: The further news travels the more verification it requires

Later Friday morning

Hydrogen bubble

1000 cubic feet mostly hydrogen

“A failure mode that has never been studied. It is just unbelievable.”

At the report of significant core damage

A coworker said“Could it fall down into a heap at the bottom of the vessel”

My reply“It would be critical if it fell into a pile”

Evacuate?

NRC Washington Based on 1200 mRem reading Order evacuation to 10 miles downwind, or all around, or maybe just 5 miles

BRP Harrisburg Had accurate info on the 1200 mRem reading Told Governor that evacuation is not necessary

NRC Commissioner Hendrie recommended to governor Partial evacuation to 5 miles

President said to governor “Err on the side of safety and caution”

Governor said at 12:30 press conference “Pregnant women and preschool children, within 5 miles should leave the area”

DOE contingency plan was already in place

Alternate facility identified at Carlisle PA 25 miles upwind

Grab essential equipment, data, and go

Code word for relocation was “Jim Thorpe”

We were told it was because he grew up in Carlisle We knew that it was really because he could run

Have plans B, C, and D ready before you need them

It was a dark and stormy night

A damsel in distress

We were there to help

A happy ending

And a surprise

Your actions speak volumes

SaturdayNRC, Met Ed, and the world’s media are at Middletown, across the river

Entire DOE operation was at the Capital City Airport The press doesn’t know about us The feeling from all levels of DOE “Let’s keep it that way!”

AMS/NEST Las Vegas is fully involvedRadio network with repeaters have been installed

Data plots, assignments, maps, are readily available

Data from ARAC Atmospheric release Advisory Center at Livermore

Dose assessment team

Experts from throughout DOE using flight and survey data, ARAC meteorology, State measurements, and TLD stations Analyzed output going to State, NRC, and Met Ed

The world is lumpy. You can't get enough data to model that lumpiness

Dose assessment Output

One exampleThere were lots

A call from the Whitehouse

3:00 AM Sunday morning, I think I was about the only person available at that hour

A staffer was preparing a briefing for President Carter prior to his visit scheduled for later that day

I didn’t have the answers so I called Andy Hull the best BNL RAP dose assessorHe had the current dose info they needed and could interpret it for them

If you don’t know admit it , find someone who does

My usual jobs for the remainder of the response

Collect representative samples (most of the day)

Package and count them (late into the night)

Look for an iodine peak

Recount longer if I see anything

Report everything to the Dose assessment group

Non standard samples may be useful, a puddle or ditch by a road may increase detection sensitivity

The people doing the analysis must know

Our usual attire when collecting samples

Quick stop at the motelJogged back toward the carFolks reacted

Your actions can be misinterpreted

Sample collection

State police drivers

Assigned roads to cover

Sample every half mileSoil, grass, waterGamma and Beta

We noticed that we had a media tail

Officer “Do you want to lose him?”

Me “YES!”

Air sampling

Lower rate samplerCharcoal or Silver GelLonger duration samples

While setting one up near GoldsboroFarmers watching from a porch a few hundred feet awaySo I went over to talk to them

What you do is more important than what you say

Local reaction

Where did the iodine go?

Where did the iodine go?

Walter Cronkite: The most trusted man in America

Wednesday “The start of a Nuclear nightmare”

Thursday “There’s more heat than light in the confusion surrounding the incident”

Friday He talked about Prometheus, Frankenstein, and “Tampering with natural forces”

The timeline is from

Crisis ContainedThe Department of Energy at Three Mile Island A History December 1980

Science-fun.org

A couple of training aids

xkcd.com/radiation/

science-fun.org/radrisk/radrisk.html

Stop using TLAs