Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Commission on Three Mile Island
Dates
- Existence: 1979
Biography
On March 28, 1979 a series of failures of valves, pumps and gauges at Metropolitan Edison’s Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, combined with errors by operators of the plant, resulted in the most serious commercial nuclear accident up to that time. A drop in the water level in the pressure vessel caused a third of the reactor core to be exposed and the exposed portion of the core overheated and partially disintegrated, releasing radioactive materials into the cooling water and generating a bubble of hydrogen gas at the top of the containment structure. Low levels of iodine 131 were also released into the atmosphere. The Pennsylvania Commission on Three Mile Island was established by Governor Richard Thornburgh under Executive Order 1979-3 to investigate the causes of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. Chaired by Lieutenant Governor William W. Scranton III, the Commission cooperated with the President’s Commission on Three Mile Island established by President Jimmy Carter to investigate the accident and make recommendations in the aftermath of the crisis.