Three Mile Island anniversary

Yesterday - March 28 - marked the 38th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident, the event that had a significant impact for the better on nuclear safety in the United States. Here are two contemporary magazine covers: one from Time and the other from the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. The cover titles are essentially the same for each: Nuclear Nightmare.

Alptraum Atomkraft - Nuclear Nightmare: after the reactor catastrophe in Harrisburg

L'atome pousse!

Not sure I get this one! But the one kid is lots of fun and the other has a great voice.

Triga Reactors - an atomic future

Postcard with first day cancellation of atomic energy conference in Geneva in 1958. Card reproduces poster by Swiss modernist Eric Nitscho for General Dynamics’ Triga reactor: “an inherently safe training, research, isotope production reactor designed and manufactured by the General Atomic Division of the General Dynamics Corporation.”

Back in the Ukraine SSR: Kiev Research Reactor

This research reactor, a10 MW tank type (VVR-M) was commissioned in 1960 at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kiev. It was converted to LEU fuel in 2008 under the Global Threat Reduction Program. 

Nuclear icon

I visited decommissioned Fermi Unit 1 yesterday, the early sodium cooled breeder reactor named for Enrico Fermi, located near Detroit. The plant has been largely dismantled, and some "souvenirs" saved for display at a display at the nearby Monroe County Community College.

The photo shows the plant's state today. Below are a couple postcards prior to the plant's construction - an artist's conception with a portrait of Enrico Fermi and a photo of the visitors' center for the plant. 

This last card shows the completed plant, which achieved criticality in 1963 and ceased operation in 1972, and promotes Detroit as a "leader in progress" with reference to the automotive and nuclear industries:

Fermi Unit 2, a Mark I GE BWR, has operated since the late 1980s. DTE Electric received an NRC license for a potential unit 3 earlier this year using the GE Hitachi ESBWR design. The company has deferred a decision as to when it might proceed with Unit 3, but if it does the remaining structures of Unit 1 will be dismantled and removed to make way for the new unit's footprint at the site.

Hot day In South Texas

I visited the site on a hot July day. This is a huge site and may see two more units in years to come.

Zion in decommissioning

I visited Zion Nuclear Power Plant, 50 miles or so north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. The plant was shuttered in 1998.

Containment door open to one of the units. Reactor vessels are being sectioned for shipment and disposal.

Turbines being salvaged for some parts that can be used as replacement stock at other plants or recycled (because they are non-radioactive). 

Another view of the turbine hall.

The control room. Only a few circuits and annunciators remain operable for in-service systems. Spent fuel has been offloaded from the fuel pool to dry cask storage on-site.