3 Mile Island Nuclear Disaster

The Three Mile Island nuclear disaster refers to an accident that occurred on March 28, 1979, at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Middletown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is considered one of the most significant nuclear incidents in U.S. history.

The accident at Three Mile Island involved a partial meltdown of the reactor core in Unit 2, one of the two reactors at the plant. The incident was caused by a combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related issues, and operator errors. A cooling malfunction led to a loss of coolant, resulting in the fuel rods overheating.

Unlike the Chernobyl disaster or the Fukushima disaster, which involved more extensive meltdowns and releases of radioactive materials, the Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown. The containment structure successfully prevented the majority of radioactive materials from being released into the environment.

However, a small amount of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine were released during the accident, leading to concerns among the public about potential health effects. As a precautionary measure, residents of the surrounding area were advised to evacuate, although the evacuation orders were voluntary and not mandatory.

The incident at Three Mile Island had a significant impact on public perception of nuclear power and safety. It led to increased scrutiny of nuclear power plants and prompted changes in safety regulations and emergency response procedures in the United States. The incident resulted in a decline in public support for nuclear energy and a slowdown in the construction of new nuclear plants.

Following the accident, efforts were made to clean up and decommission the damaged Unit 2 reactor. The cleanup process involved removing the damaged fuel, decontaminating the reactor building, and managing the radioactive waste. The Unit 2 reactor was eventually permanently shut down, while Unit 1 continued operations until its final shutdown in 2019.

While no immediate deaths or long-term health impacts have been directly attributed to the Three Mile Island accident, it did contribute to increased public concerns about the safety of nuclear power and the potential consequences of accidents. The incident highlighted the importance of robust safety measures, improved training for operators, and effective communication with the public regarding nuclear power operations.

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AI Technical Trustability Update

While working on an update to my RF Cafe Espresso Engineering Workbook project to add a couple calculators about FM sidebands (available soon). The good news is that AI provided excellent VBA code to generate a set of Bessel function plots. The bad news is when I asked for a table showing at which modulation indices sidebands 0 (carrier) through 5 vanish, none of the agents got it right. Some were really bad. The AI agents typically explain their reason and method correctly, then go on to produces bad results. Even after pointing out errors, subsequent results are still wrong. I do a lot of AI work and see this often, even with subscribing to professional versions. I ultimately generated the table myself. There is going to be a lot of inaccurate information out there based on unverified AI queries, so beware.

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