Three Mile Island waste starting its main cleanup

Decontamination of the most potent radioactive wastes produced by the accident at the Three Mile island nuclear plant more than two years ago will begin this week, a senior utility official says.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the wastes are the most powerfully radioactive -- and the largest amount -- ever created by an accident at an operating commercial nuclear power plant in the US.

Utility and NRC officials viewed drainage of the 700,000 gallons of radioactive water as a significant step in preventing any further releases of radioactivity into the atmosphere from the disabled nuclear plant.