Nuclear reactor accidents in the United States the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy that: "the cumulative effect of all design defects and deficiencies in the design, construction and operations of nuclear power plants makes a nuclear power plant accident, in our opinion, a certain event. The only question is when, and where. On March 28, 1979, equipment failures and operator error contributed to loss of coolant and a partial core meltdown of Unit 2's pressurized water reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. The scope and complexity of this reactor accident became clear over the course of five days, as a number of
Integral reactor Integral reactor In the nuclear power field, an integral reactor is a nuclear reactor design principle where the reactor core, primary cooling loop, steam generators and any required emergency cooling are contained within a single reactor vessel. The concept can be applied to any sort of underlying reactor design, there are examples of integral pressurized water reactors, sodium-cooled fast reactors, and others. The main goals are mass production of the reactor, as the entire working design can be delivered as a single unit and then connected to the non-nuclear generation sections of the overall power plant. Integral reactors are also