Human consequences
About 140,000 people leave the area as a precaution.
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NuclearThree Mile Island accident
0Deaths
140,000Displaced / homeless
$1bnEstimated cost
- No deaths or injuries directly attributed; radioactive releases were limited.
- About 1 billion dollars for the clean-up, completed in 1993.
A failure in the cooling circuit and a stuck-open valve, misread by the operators, cause a partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor core.
Consequences
Environmental consequences
Low radioactive releases; the damaged reactor is permanently shut down.
Economic consequences
Orders for new reactors in the United States collapse in the following years.
Political consequences
Regulation and operator training are tightened. The film The China Syndrome had been released twelve days earlier.
Further reading
Similar disasters
- Fukushima nuclear accidentNuclear · Japan2011
- Chernobyl disasterNuclear · Ukraine (USSR)1986
- Exxon Valdez oil spillIndustrial · United States1989
- Eruption of Mount St. HelensVolcano · United States1980
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