Nebraska Nuclear Threat: As Predictable as Fukushima

This is why I hate privatizing services that should be public. If this were a public building the government agency telling the power plant that they need to do more to prevent flooding would simply order them to do it and they would comply because it would all be a part of the same system. Energy bills would be lower because they wouldn't need to profit from it, and it would be easier to mandate that they be more energy efficient and cleaner because it would save money over time.

I was just reading about an off shore wind farm near Fukushima this morning.

It went through both the earthquake and the tsunami, and continued to generate electricity the whole time.

If it has a problem It won't be a cloud of particles like Japan. It will be the River and farm land that will have a problem. There should be plenty of warning for the people. The Owners say the Plant can survive being flooded, that's to be seen. This is still to dangerous to have in the US. I guess I have always overestimated our leaders, now I think most of them are stupid.

I think that this story is something to keep an eye on. I too have family members close to this plant .There is something to keep in mind here even the real happy to report a secret big disaster people are not saying that this plant has been breeched or that this is an actual event yet.
BPgulf Leak is wise to keep bringing it up. .just so we know we are paying attention. but right now the sky is not falling atleast with this power plant

Goop post BPGulfLeak and voted up. Thom Hartmann and RT rock! I knew that's what the no fly zone was about...so nobody can report on this. Just like they wanted nobody reporting on the BP disaster. Thom points out just how scary and dangerous this is and I think it's just terrible that the media isn't reporting on this and telling the public how bad it really is. I also like how Thom talked about the other nuclear plants that are accidents waiting to happen as well. It's just a matter of time.

I would be careful about using RTV as a source since they do get millions from the Russian government in order to report stories of a highly cynical nature and attempt to portray the US as a faltering empire by bringing in conspiracy theorists. Now, there are problems within the US and RTV addresses it but it does so in a highly cynical tone.

dude good post I suppose but weird how your the only one posting comments and that it still is near the top....your not employing sock puppets are you? cause thats not realy nessisary here.

Rising water, falling journalism
BY DAWN STOVER | 16 JUNE 2011
Every evening, my father climbs the levee along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and peers down into the black water that swallows the road. The water is rising, and the Army Corps of Engineers says the levee has never faced such a test. Dad, a retired professor, is packing his books and papers. If the levee doesn't hold, his one-story house could be underwater for months.

A little farther up the Missouri, at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station near Blair, Nebraska, the river is already lapping at the Aqua Dams -- giant plastic tubes filled with water -- that form a stockade around the plant's buildings. The plant has become an island.

In Blair, in Council Bluffs, and in my hometown of Omaha -- which are all less than 20 miles from the Fort Calhoun Station -- some people haven't forgotten that flooding is what caused the power loss at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the disastrous partial meltdowns that followed. They're wondering what the floodwaters might do if they were to reach Fort Calhoun's electrical systems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a "yellow finding PDF" (indicating a safety significance somewhere between moderate and high) for the plant last October, after determining that the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) "did not adequately prescribe steps to mitigate external flood conditions in the auxiliary building and intake structure" in the event of a worst-case Missouri River flood. The auxiliary building -- which surrounds the reactor building like a horseshoe flung around a stake -- is where the plant's spent-fuel pool and emergency generators are located.

OPPD has since taken corrective measures, including sealing potential floodwater-penetration points, installing emergency flood panels, and revising sandbagging procedures. It's extremely unlikely that this year's flood, no matter how historic, will turn into a worst-case scenario: That would happen only if an upstream dam were to instantaneously disintegrate. Nevertheless, in March of this year the NRC identified Fort Calhoun as one of three nuclear plants requiring the agency's highest level of oversight. In the meantime, the water continues to rise.

No guarantees. On June 7, there was a fire -- apparently unrelated to the flooding -- in an electrical switchgear room at Fort Calhoun. For about 90 minutes, the pool where spent fuel is stored had no power for cooling. OPPD reported that "offsite power remained available, as well as the emergency diesel generators if needed." But the incident was yet another reminder of the plant's potential vulnerability.

And so, Fort Calhoun remains on emergency alert because of the flood -- which is expected to worsen by early next week. On June 9, the Army Corps of Engineers announced PDF that the Missouri River would crest at least two feet higher in Blair than previously anticipated.

The Fort Calhoun plant has never experienced a flood like this before. The plant began commercial operation in 1973, long after the construction of six huge dams -- from Fort Peck in Montana to Gavins Point in South Dakota -- that control the Missouri River flows and normally prevent major floods. But, this spring, heavy rains and high snowpack levels in Montana, northern Wyoming, and the western Dakotas have filled reservoirs to capacity, and unprecedented releases from the dams are now reaching Omaha and other cities in the Missouri River valley. Floodgates that haven't been opened in 50 years are spilling 150,000 cubic feet per second -- enough water to fill more than a hundred Olympic-size swimming pools in one minute. And Fort Calhoun isn't the only power plant affected by flooding on the Missouri: The much larger Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville, Nebraska, sits below the Missouri's confluence with the Platte River -- which is also flooding. Workers at Cooper have constructed barriers and stockpiled fuel for the plant's three diesel generators while, like their colleagues at Fort Calhoun, they wait for the inevitable.

To be sure, there are coal-fired power plants on the river in Sioux City and Council Bluffs, Iowa -- north and south of Fort Calhoun, respectively -- that presumably could provide backup power if the nuclear plant were to lose power. Operators at the coal plants are protecting critical structures with berms and sandbags, but they can't guarantee that a levee break won't take the plants offline.

Failure of the fourth estate. Newspapers and websites all over the country have reported on the flooding and fire at Fort Calhoun, but most articles simply paraphrase and regurgitate information from the NRC and OPPD press releases, which aggregators and bloggers then, in turn, simply cut and paste. Even the Omaha World-Herald didn't send local reporters to cover the story; instead, the newspaper published an article on the recent fire written by Associated Press reporters -- based in Atlanta and Washington.

Unsurprisingly, much of the information in recent press reports has lacked context. For example: (con't) http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/dawn-stover/rising-water-falli...

Missouri River Flood Threatens Nebraska Nuclear Reactors (lots of data here) http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/06/missouri-river-floods-threaten-nebraska-nucle...

Two-thirds of hot nuclear fuel remains in reactor core at Calhoun plant even though media claims it was ‘shut down’ for refueling and maintenance

http://enenews.com/thirds-nuclear-fuel-remains-reactor-core-calhoun-plant-media-...

Sandia Labs: Similarities between Fukushima Dai-Ichi and reactors like Nebraska’s Cooper nuke plant pose significant problem — Loss of electricity could cause meltdown

http://enenews.com/sandia-lab-as-in-fukushima-dai-ichi-loss-of-power-at-reactors...

As we know from Fukushima, it's the 'spent' fuel rods being permanently stored that are the issue.

"
Spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants are the most highly radioactive of all nuclear wastes.
The nuclear plant operated by the Omaha Public Power District south of Blair has a 40-foot-deep pool next to the nuclear reactor for spent fuel rods after they are removed from the reactor.
Storage in the pool was to be temporary.
Nine years after OPPD opened its Fort Calhoun plant, Congress passed legislation in 1982 that obligated the federal government to accept nuclear waste for permanent disposal at a national site.
But the pool at the Fort Calhoun plant was reaching capacity. So OPPD in 2006 also began to temporarily store spent fuel rods above ground in mausoleum-like concrete structures outside the nuclear plant.
Now the power company says it could store the plant's nuclear waste on-site forever."

http://www.enterprisepub.com/news/article_c622e2ac-55a5-5c14-b1b2-d8adfe92484a.h...