Environmental Monitoring
TMI Unit 1 and all U.S. nuclear plants are required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to maintain an environmental monitoring program to ensure that radiation levels around the facilitates are negligible.
TMI Unit 1 annually performs around 1,700 analyses on roughly 1,300 environmental samples. Samples are taken from the air, water, fish, cow’s milk, soil, and food products from around the plant. The analyses regularly provide data that determines that the operation of Three Mile Island has no adverse radiological impact on the environment.
Three Mile Island also monitors the environment using Thermoluminescent Dosimeters (TLD’s), which are staged at 90 stations located around Three Mile Island. The dosimeters are collected on a quarterly basis and are analyzed for ambient gamma radiation. Each station has two TLD’s with three detectors in each TLD, for a total of six independent radiation detectors at each location.
In 2006, Three Mile Island and the Pa. Bureau of Radiation Protection and Pa. Emergency Management Agency worked together to install a computer connection that provides both state agencies with real time radiation readings from in-plant monitors.
Three Mile Island Unit 1 will continue to provide south central Pennsylvania with clean energy in the safest, most reliable manner.