Three Mile Island
 

The Three Mile Island meltdown was profiled on PBS's "The American
Expirence". I was surprised to hear how poor the communications were, even
by 1979 standards. A quote from the shows website says:


"The designers of the plant down in Lynchburg could not get through under
any circumstances. And they had to relay all the information through a
regional NRC office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to the Unit One, which
is north of the accident, and then a runner would run over to Unit Two and
read the gauge and run back and report this so the people down here are
getting fourth hand information which is largely incorrect. And certainly
incomplete, and they're passing back advice which doesn't make it all the
way."

"Finally Wednesday evening, an urgent message from Babcock & Wilcox got
through to the control room -- get water moving through the core. "

"As soon as the operators restarted the pumps, temperature and pressure in
the reactor dropped and stabilized. Sixteen hours after it had begun, it
appeared the accident was over."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/f...anscript1.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/filmmore/index.html

No shortwave radio, no mention of walkie talkies. It doesn't seem they
solicited help from local hams.

Frank Dresser

In article , "Frank
Dresser" writes:

Subject: Three Mile Island
From: "Frank Dresser"
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:01:32 GMT

The Three Mile Island meltdown was profiled on PBS's "The American
Expirence". I was surprised to hear how poor the communications were, even
by 1979 standards. A quote from the shows website says:


"The designers of the plant down in Lynchburg could not get through under
any circumstances. And they had to relay all the information through a
regional NRC office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to the Unit One, which
is north of the accident, and then a runner would run over to Unit Two and
read the gauge and run back and report this so the people down here are
getting fourth hand information which is largely incorrect. And certainly
incomplete, and they're passing back advice which doesn't make it all the
way."

"Finally Wednesday evening, an urgent message from Babcock & Wilcox got
through to the control room -- get water moving through the core. "

"As soon as the operators restarted the pumps, temperature and pressure in
the reactor dropped and stabilized. Sixteen hours after it had begun, it
appeared the accident was over."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/f...anscript1.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/filmmore/index.html

No shortwave radio, no mention of walkie talkies. It doesn't seem they
solicited help from local hams.


- Like in SO many bad situations, the people at TMI thought they had it
" All Under Control"
Obviously, they didn't have a clue..


Frank Dresser

I did notice in some of the scenes in the Gov.'s office there was what
looked like a handi talkie on his desk. Could be wrong, but wouldn't
be the first time.

On 06 Apr 2004 15:16:01 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote:

In article , "Frank
Dresser" writes:

Subject: Three Mile Island
From: "Frank Dresser"
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:01:32 GMT

The Three Mile Island meltdown was profiled on PBS's "The American
Expirence". I was surprised to hear how poor the communications were, even
by 1979 standards. A quote from the shows website says:


"The designers of the plant down in Lynchburg could not get through under
any circumstances. And they had to relay all the information through a
regional NRC office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to the Unit One, which
is north of the accident, and then a runner would run over to Unit Two and
read the gauge and run back and report this so the people down here are
getting fourth hand information which is largely incorrect. And certainly
incomplete, and they're passing back advice which doesn't make it all the
way."

"Finally Wednesday evening, an urgent message from Babcock & Wilcox got
through to the control room -- get water moving through the core. "

"As soon as the operators restarted the pumps, temperature and pressure in
the reactor dropped and stabilized. Sixteen hours after it had begun, it
appeared the accident was over."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/f...anscript1.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/filmmore/index.html

No shortwave radio, no mention of walkie talkies. It doesn't seem they
solicited help from local hams.


- Like in SO many bad situations, the people at TMI thought they had it
" All Under Control"
Obviously, they didn't have a clue..


Frank Dresser







Use the usual techniques to reply via email.

Molon Labe!

"Temporary FL@L&ER" . wrote in message
...
I did notice in some of the scenes in the Gov.'s office there was what
looked like a handi talkie on his desk. Could be wrong, but wouldn't
be the first time.


You might be right. The press was alerted to the story by monitoring fire
department communications, so there was some radio. But communications were
a real problem in the crisis, and it seems like a huge oversight that
knowledgeable radio people weren't involved.

Frank Dresser

Frank Dresser wrote:

"Temporary FL@L&ER" . wrote in message
...
I did notice in some of the scenes in the Gov.'s office there was what
looked like a handi talkie on his desk. Could be wrong, but wouldn't
be the first time.


You might be right. The press was alerted to the story by monitoring fire
department communications, so there was some radio. But communications were
a real problem in the crisis, and it seems like a huge oversight that
knowledgeable radio people weren't involved.

Frank Dresser

They could have enlisted the help of some local ham's to set up
emergency communications on a government frequency.


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