Part E. Engineering Considerations Engineers and scientists in the development industry are responsible for designing structures to function properly from a structural standpoint. This involves an investigation to understand existing site-specific geological and geotechnical parameters. We then compensate for any adverse conditions in a site by either remediation of the site conditions, modifications to our structural design, or a combination of both. In this part of the exercise, we will look at a recent Case Study. Open Google Earth & enter the following coordinates: Latitude 40.153, Longitude: -76.724. This is the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Station. Three Mile Island (TMI) is so named because it is located three miles downriver from Middleton, Pennsylvania. This location became famous for having a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979. At that time, TMI was the most significant nuclear accident in US commercial nuclear energy to date. The incident was widely publicized internationally, and had far-reaching effects on public opinion, particularly in the United States. Coincidentally, a movie about a nuclear disaster, that was released 12 days before the meltdown occurred and received a tepid reception from the movie-going public, overnight became a blockbuster hit (The China Syndrome) as a result of the TMI accident. A project's structural design phase normally begins several years before the construction phase. Typically speaking, the more complicated the structure, the longer the planning stage. Although the current National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) hazard zones (100-year, 500-year, etc.) were first created in 1968, flooding was still addressed by developers prior to NFIP. So, the TMI design team would have incorporated at least a basic flood hazard component into their design. Please research the TMI structure and facility on the Internet. Three Mile Island is located on the Middletown 7.5 minute quadrangle topographic map. Use the topographic map & your internet research to answer the following questions: 1. What date did construction begin and when was the project commissioned? 2. What is the elevation range of Three Mile Island? 3. 5. What would the "stage" elevation be at this location? (Hint: Use the Normal Pool Elevation as shown on the USGS topographic map of the Middletown 7.5 minute quadrangle) 4. What elevations would the 1972 Hurricane Agnes and 1936 floods have had at Three Mile Island? Think about the calculations you performed in Parts B & C above. Consider the effect that the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood had on your calculations. It is easy to see how the TMI design team could have under-designed the facility. Now incorporate the information you observed in Part D above. What mitigation methods do you recommend for reducing the risk to the general population should flooding of the TMI facility occur? Use the 95