Thirteen plants that were operating when the accident occurred have been permanently closed by their owners. Only fifty-three plants then under construction were completed and placed into service. No nuclear power plants have been ordered since the accident. The many lessons learned from the accident improved safety in areas such as better operator training programs, more comprehensive emergency response capabilities, and the creation of an industry peer group. However, recent problems in each of these areas strongly suggest that more homework is needed before these lessons can be considered fully learned.
More troubling signs indicate that some of the lessons have been ignored or forgotten.
The nuclear industry, with the NRC's blessing, is calculating falsely high safety levels at nuclear power plants by ignoring the reality of past problems. Ample evidence indicates that plant owners and the NRC continue to ignore signs of trouble. The agency's persistent use of technical jargon and acronyms makes it apparent that the NRC does not yet want to relinquish this award. We were relatively lucky at TMI because the plant was minutes away from the molten reactor core burning its way through the reactor vessel and triggering a steam explosion that would have released massive amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere. We may not be so fortunate next time.