Concern persists as former Three Mile Island nuclear plant progresses toward 2027 restart

Daniel Rose, an emergency management specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said the agency is conducting a detailed review of offsite radiological emergency plans (REP).

FEMA’s role, established after the Three Mile Island accident Rose noted, is to ensure that local officials have the preparedness and resources to adequately protect the public in the event of a nuclear accident.

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“We also inform and educate the public about radiological emergency preparedness, and we support and provide guidance to state and local governments in their emergency planning and preparedness activities that take place off-site,” he said, adding that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees plans within the plant’s boundaries. 

FEMA will gather comments from other federal agencies and provide feedback. In February, the agency will lead plant owner Constellation Energy, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and county and local responders in a graded exercise followed by a public meeting, FERC’s Rose said.

Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties and local governments, each in the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the plant, are participating along with the commonwealth, he said.

Now rebranded as the Crane Clean Energy Center, the former TMI 1 reactor slated to reopen next year was not affected by the accident that took its twin, TMI 2, permanently out of commission. TMI 1 continued operating until 2019, when Constellation Energy shut it down for economic reasons. The plant stands on an island in the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township – about 10 miles south of Harrisburg.

Constellation is now undertaking a $1.6 billion effort to restart the reactor, which will supply 835 megawatts of electricity to the region’s electricity grid. It will offset an equivalent amount tech giant Microsoft has agreed to purchase from Constellation to power data centers elsewhere.

The company plans to permanently employ 600 people at the plant, including 150 “boomerang employees” returning from other sites and 450 new hires. Activity at the plant will also surge about every two years, as 1,500 to 2,000 workers spend weeks refueling the reactor, Constellation spokesman Dave Marcheskie said. 

The company is also training about 90 plant operators to be licensed by the NRC and new uranium fuel is set to be delivered to the plant by the end of 2026, he said.

With four currently operating nuclear power plants, the commonwealth has a robust REP program, FERC’s Rose said, adding that two exercises have been carried out this year with a third scheduled in October. He noted because the plant closed only seven years ago, many agencies are able to use their pre-existing plans as a starting point, streamlining the process.

One question from the audience of about 50 at Penn State’s Harrisburg campus centered on whether plans to evacuate schools, nursing homes and other facilities housing vulnerable would withstand the human instinct to flee an actual disaster.

NRC officials responded with uncharacteristic intensity, saying that they believe they and others responsible for public safety would stand by their posts in an emergency.

“If you’re asking me what I’m going to do. I’m going to be responding to the event to protect the people,” said Ray McKinley, director of the NRC’s division of reactor safety for the northeastern United States. “That’s our mission.”

Brett Klukan, an NRC attorney who moderated the meeting, conceded that the emergency preparedness plans depend on the selflessness of responders.

“There are moments every day where people rush into danger, rushing the fire to protect others, and we’re relying on that same greatest impulse within us to do their duty to protect the public in such a circumstance,” Klukan said.

And NRC spokesman Scott Burnell added that any danger at the plant is likely to develop over the course of hours, if not days, and the plans take that into account.

“They are based on realistic, evidence-based analysis of what could happen and how it will happen and how long it will take,” Burnell said. “And that is why there will be time for experts to examine what’s happening, and determine what could be necessary to protect the public.”

NRC officials also provided updates on inspection activities and the review of environmental impacts required under federal law. Erin Carfang, the engineering chief responsible for inspections throughout the northeast, said specialists are working to ensure the plant is restored to its pre-shut down specifications, while others are reviewing cybersecurity measures, the plant’s fire protection and its program to identify and correct safety issues. 

Kevin Folk, senior environmental project manager for the NRC, said the agency is on course to issue its final environmental assessment, which covers more than a dozen resource areas, such as air quality and noise, surface and groundwater impacts and how the site will manage spent uranium fuel, which remains highly radioactive.

NRC staff determined that an exhaustive, in-depth study and environmental impact statement were not required and a less intensive environmental assessment was sufficient, Folk said. The draft assessment was published in June and public comment on the document closed July 8. The assessment found no significant effects on resources and a final Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is expected to be issued in September, he said.

During the 21/2 hour meeting, speakers included a representative of the York County commissioners and Dauphin County Commissioner Mike Pries, both of whom spoke in favor of the project. Others expressed deep concern about the longer-term impact of nuclear energy and the storage of spent fuel at the site amid the flood-prone Susquehanna.

“I’m always seeking truth, and tonight I’m thankful that we heard some truths and some vagaries that you wonder, where are we getting this information tonight?” said Patricia Longenecker of West Donegal Township, Lancaster County,  noting there’s no plan to remove thousands of tons of radioactive waste left by the TMI 2 accident from the island.

Catherine Warner, a nuclear health physicist and lead decommissioning inspector for the damaged reactor, said 99% of the fuel was removed in dry cask containers for storage in Idaho. The remaining 1%, plus sludge and radioactive concrete from the reactor building, will also be removed but stored on site or sent to a burial site, depending on the level of radioactivity, she said. 

Warner said the waste stored on the island includes 46 spent fuel canisters from TMI 1 and one high-level waste container.

Dave Allard, the retired director of the Bureau of Radiation Protection in the state Department of Environmental protection, said his experience working with the plant’s former owner Exelon left him with no concerns about the emergency response plans. But Allard said he is worried about decreased staffing levels at the NRC and FEMA following efforts in the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce. 

McKinley, the reactor safety director, said staffing levels have created challenges for the NRC in the last year. 

“We’re a leaner organization for sure, but we have quite a bit of depth in our talent and a very talented workforce,” he said. “We don’t foresee any difficulty with regards to being able to perform a very thorough and detailed licensing review.”

Allard also said he has deep concern about a rulemaking proposal the NRC filed earlier in July to scrap a decades old radiation safety principle requiring companies using radioactive materials to keep exposure “as low as reasonably possible.” The proposal is part of the agency’s response to President Donald Trump’s executive order demanding reform of the NRC. 

“These standards are basic standards for protection of workers,” Allard said, adding that he questions whether other federal agencies such as the Department of Energy and Occupational Safety and Health Administration should have been involved in the proposal. Burnell, the NRC spokesperson, noted the Crane restart would proceed under existing standards.

“I hope the public looks at this very hard,” Allard said, noting that the new rule would create different allowable radiation doses for the public and workers. “I think there’s going to be great confusion in the regulated community.”