“We know for a fact that large amounts of radioactivity escaped from the Three Mile Island accident. But, the nuclear industry and the government did not collect release estimates for specific isotopes, and to this day, there is no available information about which isotopes escaped nor the actual quantity of radiation that was released.”
-Helen Caldicott, Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, p.66
For the umpteenth time, I fail to see how radioactivity can escape–radioactivity is a characteristic of radioactive materials; wherever the material is, the radioactivity is. Or, for that matter, how you can collect (measure) an estimate. But anyway:
How would they have measured it, unless they had a mass spectrometer on the site from the start of the accident? And how could materials other than iodine and noble gases have gotten into the off-gas system to begin with?
Filed under Anti-Nuclear Quote of the Day, Environment, Physics, Safety, Three Mile Island
Posted on November 27, 2006 by Stewart Peterson |
I’m halfway through the book “Three Mile Island” written by the NRC’s historian, Samuel Walker, which came out back in 2004. Highly recommend it. On the third day of the accident they released 1.2 rems into the atmosphere and they had a helicopter over the reactor taking the reading. Offsite the readings only measured 20-25 mrems. I’m sure there are more releases that happened and I will find out more in the book but I highly doubt they were anymore than 1.2 rems which is nothing.