Today was President Jimmy Carter‘s funeral. He was 100 years old when he died after a long and remarkable life of public service. He will, no doubt, be best remembered for his personal integrity and faith in his term as the 39th president of the United States and his efforts to promote and expand human rights in his post-presidential career, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Nevertheless, Jimmy Carter began his career as a naval officer who played a role in shaping the future of the Navy’s atomic-powered propulsion systems. Here is a short video about Carter’s relatively brief naval career that would provide a foundation for his long and eventful life.
In March, 1979, President Carter went to the Three Miles Island nuclear power station for a photo op, and to calm the Nervous
public..
A vent valve on TMI unit #2 was accidentally stuck open, and the pressurized water reactor, PWR
was now operating at atmospheric pressure…None of the automatic controls, or instruments
Detected this malfunction..
When President Carter talked with TMI’s operators, they said they had to break a coolant pump
Seal, and then, unit #2 would fail safe.. President Carter called his mentor Admiral Rickover, and
Rickover ordered the unit #2’s reactor manually shutdown..Hardly a fail safe event, it was a partial meltdown, And
almost a total Meltdown…
We were fortunate to have President Carter at that moment in our country’s history, as he was Also a part of Admiral Rickover’s nascent
Nuclear power program, and uniquely qualified…