Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Back Up and Running

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

September 6, 2012 | 1:30 PM

Jeff Fusco / Getty Images

Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant, Middletown, Pa.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given TMI the green light to start producing energy after shutting down the plant’s Unit 1 reactor back in August. Three Mile Island officials have since discovered coolant system leaks through “micro-cracks” in the pressurizer. The pressurizer balances liquid and steam, keeping the two separate so that any radiation stays within the reactor.
NRC inspectors monitored the repair work. The plant began operating Tuesday afternoon. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is also reviewing the plant’s flooding and seismic evaluations, following the meltdown at the Fukoshima nuclear plant in Japan last year.