NRC as referee: Voluminous studies of TMI have helped the Nuclear Regulatory Commission generate an action plan to alter existing nuclear reactors

Few areas of the U.S. nuclear power business remain untouched by the accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has also undergone change because of recommendations flowing from the investigations of that emergency. All the reviews and investigations set out to find some magic formula to explain “why TMI-2 went wrong.” But the studies underscored what was already known: that nuclear power operation is highly complex, and no substitute exists for a painstakingly rigorous approach to every aspect of power-plant design, construction, and operation.