Feds to investigate Three Mile Island nuclear plant

Federal nuclear power officials are launching an investigation into a series of minor malfunctions at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.

A pair of incidents at the plant, the site of a 1979 partial meltdown that was the worst commercial nuclear power incident in United States history, caught the attention of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported.

{mosads}A nuclear fission control rod fell into a reactor May 3, and during a May 6 shutdown to retrieve the rod, a steam bypass valve closed when it should have opened, The Patriot-News reported. No one was injured in the process.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said two inspectors assigned to the remaining operational reactor at Three Mile Island are conducting an independent review of the incidents, Exelon Corp.’s response to them and the process they took to restart the reactor.

Sheehan said the shutdown process was generally carried out safely. But, despite the minor nature of the problems and the fact that the public was not harmed, it is, nonetheless, protocol to conduct an independent investigation of unusual incidents.

Reactors typically run constantly and are only shut down every 18 months for maintenance.