Three Mile Island Seeks Nuclear Facility Longer Life

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has scheduled two hearings next week to take public comments on a request for a 20-year extension to the operating license for one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility.

The hearings are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, at two different locations in Middletown, Pennsylvania. In both meetings, NRC officials will be on hand an hour early to talk one on one with members of the public.

"This will be the first of several meetings we will hold near the plant to explain the nature of our reviews and hear from members of the public about any concerns they might have," said Louise Lund, a branch chief with the NRC's Division of License Renewal. "We look forward to this chance to discuss our review program and receive their input."

The renewal application is for the reactor 1 facility only, not the reactor 2 facility that was the site of the most serious nuclear plant accident in U.S. history.

Located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Three Mile Island facility experienced a failure in the water cooling system for reactor 2 on March 28, 1979. The loss of cooling led to a partial meltdown of the reactor core and a release of some radiation to the outside,

Despite the release, the accident posed few health risks to the 2 million people in the vicinity of Three Mile Island, according to a report last year from the Keystone Center. The average dose of radiation in the surrounding area was about 1 millirem, it said, while a typical set of chest x-rays provides 6 millirems of exposure.

Reactor 2 has been shut down, defueled and decontaminated since the 1979 accident. The reactor 1 facility was not affected by the incident and has been operating safely throughout its history, according to the NRC.

The original, 40-year license for the reactor 1 plant is due to expire on April 19, 2014.

Of the 104 nuclear reactors operating in the U.S., the NRC has approved license extensions for 48.

A growing number of officials and scientists are encouraging a shift toward nuclear energy as a way to reduce consumption of fossil fuels, cut carbon dioxide emissions and curb the effects of climate change. In a report last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) noted that expanded nuclear power offers promise, but only if the U.S. government strengthens its construction, safety, security and oversight standards.

"The risks posed by global warming may turn out to be so grave that the United States and the world cannot afford to rule out a substantial expansion of nuclear power," said Lisbeth Gronlund, who co-authored the UCS report. "However, it also may turn out that nuclear power cannot be deployed worldwide on the scale necessary to significantly cut emissions without resulting in unacceptably high safety and security risks."