Kemeny Commission

The commission nominated by President Carter to investigate the accident, the Kemeny Commission after the name of its chairman, effectively detected responsibilities and deficiencies, and listed the damages caused by the accident. However, its final report, published at the end of October 1979 (Kemeny, 1979), contained the following statement We conclude that the most serious health effect of the accident was severe mental stress, which was short lived. The highest levels of distress were found among those living within 5 miles of TMI and in families with preschool children . 

The Kemeny commission (Kemeny, 1979) concluded its work by saying that the field in which the more fundamental modifications were necessary is that of the mindset and of the working methods of the industry and of the control bodies in USA. It was of the opinion that after many years of operation... 

One famous example of a special commission was the Kemeny Commission that investigated the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979. Another is the Rogers Commission that investigated the Challenger Space Shuttle accident in 1986. 

The Kemeny commission investigated the TMI accident (Kemeny, 1979). One of their key findings was that the opposing directives of the AEG (both nuclear regulation and promotion) were a major contributor to the setup for the accident. Partly due to this. President Nixon dissolved the AEC in 1975 and formed the NRG whose sole mission was to perform nuclear regulatory duties. 

Kemeny, John G. 1979. Report of the President s Commission on Three Mile Island (The Need for Change The Legacy o/TM/). Washington, DC U.S. Government Accounting Office. 

J. G. Kemeny, Ed., Report of the President s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, October 1979, available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 

Almost immediately after the TMI-2 accident, the government and the nuclear industry sought to identify the causes and began taking steps to reduce the likelihood of future accidents. Extensive corrective actions for U.S plants were required by the NRC s TMI Action Plan (see Section 1.4.6). The first and most prominent formal investigation of the accident was conducted by the President s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, also known for its chairman, John Kemeny. Two important NRC-sponsored investigations were by... 

Kemeny, J. C., 1979. Report of the Commission on the accident at Three Mile Island, Washington, DC US Government Printing Office. 

---