Panel Approves TMI-1 Restart : Critics Appeal Ruling on Undamaged Reactor

WASHINGTON —  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday authorized the reopening of the undamaged reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which has been shut down since its twin was involved in the nation’s worst commercial nuclear accident six years ago.

By a 4-1 vote, the commission decided that “there is reasonable assurance” the undamaged reactor, known as TMI-1, can be operated safely. The action lifts a shutdown order imposed amid fears for public safety in March, 1979, after the reactor’s second unit, TMI-2, suffered a partial meltdown.

The ruling, which was appealed immediately by opponents of nuclear power, is scheduled to go into effect June 11. Plant managers said the reactor could be started up in another two weeks, possibly reaching its authorized capacity within 90 days.

The commission acted after dozens of hearings and six years of debate on whether the plant near Harrisburg, Pa.--and commercial nuclear power in general--is safe. And despite the long-awaited ruling, the debate is certain to continue.

Even as commissioners announced the decision, some spectators in the crowded hearing room shouted: “Murderers!” And several vowed to block entrances to the plant. Three Mile Island Alert, a group that opposes restarting the unit, immediately petitioned the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the decision, and the state of Pennsylvania asked for a stay.

Several residents of the central Pennsylvania area in which the plant is located appeared shaken by the decision, which had been expected, and some even were tearful.

Patricia Smith, who lives in Goldsboro, Pa., about three miles from the reactor, said that restarting TMI-1 “will drive me bananas” because “at night I’ll be afraid I’ll hear sirens because it’ll be another accident. Or worse, there’ll be no sirens.”

Meanwhile, Frank W. Graham, vice president of the industry’s Atomic Industrial Forum, hailed the decision, saying that the Three Mile Island reactor is “certainly as safe and reliable as any other plant operating today”--partly because so much attention has been focused on it.

Similarly, before the vote, Commission Chairman Nunzio J. Palladino said his confidence in the plant’s safe operation had been bolstered by promises of the unusual “regulatory scrutiny that will be given” to the plant’s operation during the start up.

Before the reactor can be restarted, two conditions must be met: A program to increase commission oversight of the TMI-1 operation must be instituted and the commission staff must approve the schedule for gradually increasing the reactor’s power as outlined by the plant’s owner, General Public Utilities Corp., and its operator, GPU Nuclear Corp.

GPU Nuclear, which assumed operation of the plant from Metropolitan Edison after the 1979 accident, has been bitterly attacked for its management practices. Commissioner James K. Asselstine, the lone dissenter in Wednesday’s decision, continued the criticism of the operator and its parent company, saying evidence has “come to light repeatedly which cast continued doubt on” GPU Nuclear’s competence and integrity.

Moreover, he said, the parent company has shown “a pattern of violating commission regulations for the sake of expediency--a pattern which began before the accident and which continues even to this day.”

Specifically, Asselstine mentioned General Public Utilities’ “widespread falsification” of safety tests at TMI-2 before the 1979 accident. And even after that, he said, GPU Nuclear failed to instill in its employees a respect for safety, a failure that he charged led to cheating on NRC and company operator license examinations.

In confronting these problems, Asselstine said, the commission “has been satisfied with Band-Aid, short-term fixes,” rather than addressing “the root causes of (GPU Nuclear’s) problems in the area of corporate character.”

But Palladino defended the company, saying: “The management faults which existed in 1979 have been corrected. The present organization is different from and improved over the one that operated Three Mile Island at that time.”

William G. Kuhns, chairman and chief executive officer of General Public Utilities, said the restart will provide financial benefits for 1.7 million electricity customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, reducing rates $72 million a year once the reactor reaches authorized capacity.

Hailing the end of “a difficult six years,” Kuhns said the utility now can demonstrate that “we indeed have one of the finest nuclear organizations in the country and that our commitment to safety is unequivocal.”