Nuclear reactor accidents in the United States ordered during the late 1960s raised new safety questions and created fears of a severe reactor accident that would send large quantities of radiation into the environment. In the early 1970s, a highly contentious debate over the performance of emergency core cooling systems in nuclear plants, designed to prevent a core meltdown that could lead to the "China syndrome", received coverage in the popular media and technical journals. In 1976, four nuclear engineers —three from GE and one from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission— resigned, stating that nuclear power was not as safe as their superiors were claiming. They testified to
Cooling pond of up to 50 years in the area. The Columbia station in Pardeeville, Wisconsin is a coal fired power plant with a capacity of 1000 MW. A duel cooling system is used for heat rejection that consists of a cooling pond and two cooling towers. The pond and towers are connected in a parallel arrangement to help dissipate thermal energy at expedited rates. In 1994 North Korea's Yongbyon reactor was under U.S scrutiny and thus its nuclear fuel rods were taken out of the reactor and placed in the Yongbyon's cooling pond. They have since been removed. Cooling pond A