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THREE MILE ISLAND almost happened again at nine o'clock in the morning on January 25 Just outside of Rochester, New York. a tube ruptured in the steam generator of the Robert E. Ginna nuclear power plant. allowing radioactive water to come into contact with the cooling system. The water vaporized and escaped--still radioactive into the atmosphere. As the plant's technicians belatedly tried to lower the water pressure to reduce the leak, a valve stuck, pressure dropped too rapidly and the water in the reactor began to boil. If a backup valve hadn't opened, a "bubble...
...failure, design flaws, and human error at the nation's 71 reactors in 1980 In 1981, nuclear power plants were shut down for safety reasons one day out of every eight. And signs for the future are ominous Thirty three nuclear plants now report cracking and corrosion in their steam generator tubes--the same problem which caused the Ginna accident At '2 other plants, the steel easings of the reactor cores have become so brittle under radioactive bombardment that the plants may have to shut down by the end of this year...
...Mile Island, the Ginna accident proved far less serious. According to officials from Rochester Gas and Electric Corp., which owns the plant, and engineers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a corroded pipe in the reactor's primary cooling loop that carries radioactive water into the plant's steam generator ruptured, contaminating water in the normally nonradioactive secondary loop. The leak also raised the pressure in the secondary loop, triggering a safety valve, which vented the now radioactive steam into the atmosphere. At the same time, slightly radioactive water from the secondary loop flowed into a holding tank...
...accident could not have come at a more awkward time for the nuclear-power industry, already under attack for its spotty safety record. What is worse, the Ginna mishap may be a portent of troubles ahead, since steam lines in many plants around the country are also plagued by corrosion. Indeed, by week's end, reactors in New Jersey and Vermont had been shut down because of leaks in their plumbing, and the NRC reported that plans to restart Three Mile Island's Unit No. 1, closed for refueling at the time of the 1979 accident...
...people, but he stayed only one night. "That's a hole," he says. "The one time I stayed there, they tried to set some guy on fire." Billy (he does not give his last name) spent most of last winter searching for shelter-in Penn Station, in the steam tunnels under New York City's streets, in abandoned buildings. Perhaps in this most vicious winter he would not have made it. There are an estimated 36,000 homeless men and women in New York City, and last winter at least 20 died of exposure...