On anniversary of Three Mile Island accident, groups protest planned restart

It was 46 years ago that the worst nuclear accident in American history happened right here in the Susquehanna Valley.The Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, partially melted down, forcing evacuations for nearby families and changing the landscape of the region for years to come.A combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems, and worker errors led to the partial meltdown.The incident prompted major changes in emergency response planning, operator training, radiation protection, and other areas of nuclear power plant operations. It also caused the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to increase its oversight.Unit 2 was shut down after the accident, and cleanup officially ended in December 1993.Unit 1 closed in 2019.However, as News 8 has reported for months, there are new plans to restart the reactor.Friday at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, a few dozen organizers got together to express their opposition to a restart planned by Constellation Energy. Their argument is that nothing should ever be put back on that site again and that it should be cleaned up in favor of something new."This is not a done deal," said Eric Epstein of Three Mile Island Alert. "I think what we learned before is if you put all your eggs in the nuclear basket, you get scrambled."Organizers say Constellation will have to be held accountable for its plans to handle a possible emergency or disaster.Constellation said in a statement on the disaster's anniversary:"The lessons learned from this day in 1979 allowed Constellation to operate the other TMI reactor, known as Unit 1, safely for decades. In fact, when it closed in 2019 for economic reasons, it was the highest-rated plant in the country for safety and reliability. Today, we have a historic opportunity to build on the lessons from 1979 and restart that unit, investing $1.6 billion in new equipment, technology, and training to launch the Crane Clean Energy Center and restore 600 good jobs for Central Pennsylvania families."