Lessons Learned from Three Mile Island Packaging, Transportation and Disposition that Apply to Fukushima Daiichi Recovery

Following the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami damage in March of 2011 at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, interest was amplified for what was done for recovery at the Three
Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) in the United States following its meltdown in 1979. Many parallels could be
drawn between to two accidents. This paper presents the results of research done into the TMI-2 recovery
effort and its applicability to the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup. This research focused on three topics:
packaging, transportation, and disposition. This research work was performed as a collaboration between
Japan’s Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) and the Idaho National
Laboratory (INL). Hundreds of TMI-2 related documents were searched and pertinent information was
gleaned from these documents. Other important information was also obtained by interviewing employees
who were involved first hand in various aspects of the TMI-2 cleanup effort. This paper is organized into
three main sections: (1) Transport from Three Mile Island to Central Facilities Area at INL, (2) Transport
from INL Central Receiving Facility to INL Test Area North (TAN) and wet storage at TAN, and (3)
Transport from TAN to INL Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) and Dry
Storage at INTEC. Within each of these sections, lessons learned from performing recovery activities are
presented and their applicability to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant cleanup are outlined.