Word: plante
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...MORATORIUM on nuclear power plant construction--to provide time for a thorough re-evaluation of both atomic reactor safety and waste disposal--is long overdue...
...recent accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania clearly demonstrates the combination of design flaws, technical mishaps, and human error that can cause a catastrcphic reactor accident. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the reactor's design was ineffective in containing radioactive water; safety and monitoring equipment failed to perform properly when called upon; plant operators apparently forgot to turn on important safety valves deactivated two weeks before the accident and twice turned off the reactor's emergency cooling system prematurely...
...Three Mile Island accident is only the most recent--and best-publicized--in a long series of serious reactor mishaps. In 1975, for example, a fire at the massive Brown's Ferry nuclear plant destroyed safety systems, filled the plant's control room with dense smoke, and threatened a meltdown. Nuclear engineers from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the plant, have stated that a potentially catastrophic radiation release from Brown's Ferry was averted "by sheer luck...
Perhaps the most outrageous example of human error occured when operators inexplicably started up the Vermont Yankee plant with the lid off the reactor's containment vessel...
...catastrophic reactor accident could be more devastating than any previous peacetime event. A U.S. government report, kept secret until a Freedom of Information Act request was filed, predicts that a credible nuclear power plant accident could conceivably kill 45,000 people and create a disaster area the size of Pennsylvania...