Three Mile Island 2027: The Meltdown Reactor's Twin Returns

Three Mile Island is restarting in 2027 — but the reactor coming back is the one that had to wait 6.5 years after the 1979 meltdown next door. We check the 44 fixes ordered in 1979 against it. On 28 March 1979, Unit 2 at Three Mile Island lost nearly half its core. Unit 1, refuelled and ready to restart that same day, stayed frozen until 1985, ran for 34 years, closed in 2019 — and is now being restarted as the Crane Clean Energy Center, with a 20-year Microsoft contract and a $1 billion federal loan. The President's Commission (Kemeny) and the NRC's own inquiry (Rogovin) said what had to change. We take five items — the light, the simulator, the regulator, the people, the evacuation plan — and audit each one as of 1 October 2026. CHAPTERS 00:00 The reactor that had to wait 00:30 4 a.m., 28 March 1979 01:58 What almost everyone gets wrong 02:44 The 1979 checklist 03:39 Item 1: the light 06:26 Item 2: the simulator 08:17 Item 3: the regulator 09:11 Item 4: the people 10:11 Unit 1's own story 12:00 Item 5: the evacuation plan 13:15 Where the paperwork stands 13:44 Palisades: first in line 14:39 The audit 16:06 Coming up next SOURCES • Report of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (Kemeny), October 1979 • Three Mile Island: A Report to the Commissioners and to the Public, NRC Special Inquiry Group (Rogovin), NUREG/CR-1250, 1980 • NUREG-0737, Clarification of TMI Action Plan Requirements (item II.D.3), NRC, 1980 • NRC, U.S. DOE, FEMA and Constellation public documents on the Crane Clean Energy Center restart (2024–2026) ARCHIVE PHOTOS (Wikimedia Commons) • Three Mile Island station (2019) — Constellation Energy — CC BY-SA 4.0 • Cooling towers of Three Mile Island Unit 2 — Z22 — CC BY-SA 3.0 • Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station — Z22 — CC BY-SA 3.0 • Three Mile Island nuclear power plant — unknown author — Public domain • Armed security officer in the turbine building of Three Mile Island — Brandondsantos — CC BY-SA 4.0 • Three Mile Island plant from Goldsboro, Pennsylvania — NARA — Public domain • Presentation at Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Simulator — U.S. NRC — CC BY 2.0 • Three Mile Island, 11 April 1979 — unknown author — Public domain • Goldsboro, Pennsylvania, cooling towers in background — NARA — Public domain • Control room Number 2, NRC inspector looking at meters — NARA — Public domain • NRC Chairman visits TMI — U.S. NRC — CC BY 2.0 • Carter leaving Three Mile Island — President's Commission on the Accident at TMI — Public domain • Jimmy Carter - Three Mile Island Commission — White House Staff Photograph — Public domain • Cover of the 1979 report of the President's Commission — Pogono82 — CC BY-SA 4.0 • Transmittal letter of the President's Commission final report — Pogono82 — CC BY-SA 4.0 • Table of contents, 1979 report of the President's Commission — Pogono82 — CC BY-SA 4.0 • NRC inspector checking health physics — NARA — Public domain • Graphic TMI-2 Core End-State Configuration — U.S. NRC (derivative: Das steine) — Public domain • Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River — Doc Searls — CC BY 2.0 • Harrisburg and Susquehanna River aerial — formulanone — CC BY-SA 2.0 • Pennsylvania State Capitol — Kumar Appaiah — CC BY-SA 2.0 • Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station — U.S. NRC — Public domain • Palisades (HD.6B.285) — ENERGY.GOV — Public domain • Palisades (HD.6B.282) — ENERGY.GOV — Public domain • Palisades reactor building (HD.6C.029) — ENERGY.GOV — Public domain • Palisades (HD.6B.286) — ENERGY.GOV — Public domain • U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Building, Rockville — Tony Webster — CC BY 2.0 • NRC Commission Meeting — U.S. NRC — CC BY 2.0 • KINS APR1400 Simulator — U.S. NRC — CC BY 2.0 • PWR control room simulator (HD.6D.370) — ENERGY.GOV — Public domain • Three Mile Island accident sign — Z22 — CC BY-SA 3.0 • Microsoft Data Center Middenmeer — Hay Kranen — CC BY 4.0 Some scenes in this video are AI-generated reconstructions based on real photographs of the site, diagrams and animations are our own. Real archive photos are credited above. #ThreeMileIsland #NuclearPower #TMI #Engineering #Documentary