Nebraska Nuke Plant Notifies Feds of Missouri Flooding

[onehandle]

Source: AP/KCRG

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Public Power District issued a flooding alert Sunday for its nuclear power plant in southeast Nebraska as the Missouri River continues to rise.

Mark Becker, a spokesman for the Columbus-based utility, said the "notification of unusual event" sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was expected as the river swells above record levels. The declaration is the least serious of four emergency notifications established by the federal commission.

"We knew the river was going to rise for some time," Becker said. "It was just a matter of when." The plant was operating Sunday at full capacity, and there was no threat to plant employees or to the public, he said.

The notification was issued about 4 a.m. Sunday, when the river reached 42.5 feet, or 899 feet above sea level, at the Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville. Cooper is at 903 feet elevation, and NPPD officials said the river would have to climb to 902 feet at Brownville before officials would shut down the plant.

Read more: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Nebraska-Nuke-Plant-Notifies-Feds-of-Missouri-Flooding-124157809.html

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. have a look......

http://media.kcrg.com/images/6540400+-+WIR+-+Missouri+River+Flooding+-+06_14_2011+-+18.45.09.jpg

[Harmony Blue]

2. This picture was taken before the levees were overtopped...

geez...this isn't good news by any means.

[joeglow3]

5. Wrong plant

That is the Fort Calhoun plant.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. this was the picture they have with the article

[SpiralHawk]

10. So you are saying we have two messed up nuclear reactors in Nebraska?

Wow - that's stunning. Two freaking messed up reactors, one in Brownsville and one at Fort Calhoun?

...if that is the case, as you seem to imply, Americans really aren't getting the news...

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Yes - that's Fort Calhoun, from 6th June

From the article:

The Cooper Nuclear Station is one of two plants along the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska. The Fort Calhoun Station, operated by the Omaha Public Power District, is about 20 miles north of Omaha. It issued a similar alert June 6.

The river has risen at least 1.5 feet higher than Fort Calhoun's 1,004-foot elevation above sea level. The plant can handle water up to 1,014 feet, according to OPPD. The water is being held back by a series of protective barriers, including an 8-foot rubber wall outside the reactor building.

[oldbanjo]

18. If levies brake or a Dam there will be a lot more in trouble

all the way to New Orleans.

[oldbanjo]

19. Their claiming these plants are safe

Ft Calhoun has a rubber bladder filled with water 8 feet tall and 16 feet wide around the Plant.

[hootinholler]

24. Those are very effective temporary dam systems.

The best part is they use water to hold back water.

-Hoot

[plumbob]

25. Don't tell Tempe that. Theirs broke July 10.

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/rubber-dam-tempe-town-lake-bursts-emptying-lake-overnight

Rubber dam at Tempe Town Lake bursts, emptying lake overnight
Published 23 July 2010

An inflatable rubber dam (called "bladder") on Tempe's Town Lake exploded, sending a wall of water into the Salt River bed; at least three-quarters of the about one billion gallons of water had drained overnight; those parts of the rubber dam which are wet have held up, but a plan to keep those parts of the dam which are above water failed, exposing the rubber to scorching sun that has damaged the material


Tempe Town Lake overnight became a bog after one of the four inflatable bladders at the west end of the lake exploded, sending a wall of water into the Salt River bed. On Wednesday morning swampy patches of earth could be seen in many parts of the lake bed, with standing water in the center.

Tempe spokeswoman Kris Baxter estimated that at least three-quarters of the about one billion gallons of water had drained overnight. Officials say the dam breach left some areas of the lake with three feet of water or less; the average lake depth is about sixteen feet.


But what they hey! It's just a nuclear plant even if the darn thing does fail! They're so green that farmers won't be able to harvest all the crops from it!

[hootinholler]

27. After they were warned in 2008

Lesson is don't use a temporary dam as a permanent structure.

And your last sentence is just a WTF moment.

-Hoot

[plumbob]

29. And the reason we know that these guys haven't received a warning is...??

My last sentence is just a recap of the disciples of nuclear power who continually assure me on these boards that not only is nuclear power safe, it's great for the environment, children, weather, you name it.

So let's see, we need to know how old the dam at the plant is, what its current condition is, whether or not they have received any warnings about it. What we do know is that they're operating as if nothing was wrong at all.

We can't get any of the information we need, so it's a blind leap of faith. I'm an atheist, both nuclear and spiritual, so I'd reject that approach.

[Cowpunk]

31. Try doing a modicum of research

You could start with this AP article. Or are you convinced they are part of the cover up?

[plumbob]

32. No, the AP is just lazy. They printed exactly what the plant gave them.

The article does not answer any of the questions about the age of the dam, its expected life, last inspection.

I have done research and found one of these that burst in Tempe in July. The other poster said that the critical info was age, condition, and any warnings from the manufacturer. That I cannot find after a pretty good search.

The plants always cover things up - the nuclear industry itself is composed of the worst liars in the world. Let me give you an example: one hour from my home is the WCS nuclear disposal site. This started out as an application for hospital waste like gloves, for Texas and Vermont only. Then it turned into any "medium" nuclear waste. Then they got permitted to accept any and all. The last step was opening it to all 50 states. Now the first load is due in from the TVA.

That's how the whole industry works - one inch at a time, until they have the whole field, and if anything goes wrong - bang! Back to the taxpayers.

The facts that most "journalists" are really just copy and paste artists plays into their hands. 36 years ago, a candidate for the US Senate hired me to write newspaper-ready copy of his campaign drivel. He told me that because papers always have space to fill, they would use anything that was ready to go. I didn't doubt it then, or now. His name was Phil Gramm.

[Cowpunk]

35. The Tempe dam failure is completely irrelevant.

Except for the fact that they both involve some form of water containment device made of rubber, the two situations have nothing at all in common. If you read about the brakes on a Freightliner truck failing, would you start to worry that your Hyundai might be the next to go? It's silly.

You are of course right that no one should take the power company's word alone that the flood control measures are up to snuff and there is nothing to worry about. Does the writer of the AP article do this? No. Are you assuming that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and OPPD are one in the same? This article gives another account of OPPD's dealings with the NRC inspectors:

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.

So we know the NRC has repeatedly inspected the plant's flood readiness since last year. And if it makes you feel any better, OPPD is a publicly owned non-profit corporation. The name of the company that made the Fort Calhoun plant's barrier is called Aqua Dam, in case you wish to do more research.

The writer of that article is a nuclear scientist who lives very close to the plant.(So do I, by the way) I agree with her that there is definitely cause for concern here, though not necessarily cause for alarm. I will be watching the situation closely.

[divvy]

12. This is the Cooper Station plant

[safeinOhio]

3. Move along, nothing to see here.

The experts have it under control.

:sarcasm:

[Corruption Winz]

4. No threat.... yet, they felt the need to let people know about it....

So, it's like.....

"Hey, there's no threat of you being punched in the face. But, to let you know... someone is behind you with his fists up."

[AtheistCrusader]

7. They are required by regulatory oversight to make such notifications under planned circumstances.

They would be fined heavily if they did not.

Hopefully they have all the assets on tap they need to safeguard the facility.

[Corruption Winz]

9. I'm sure they are.

And they are required to do this because of the threat involved.

[wundermaus]

8. Do we wait until the atomic shit has already hit the fan...

before we put a stop to this f'ing insanity?
WHAT will it take to get our attention?
Does it have to be a meltdown in each of our own backyards before we confront from our energy addiction?
God damn-it there's no place left to run!
The whole f'ing planet is a muck with the stupid.

[tclambert]

14. But what's the alternative? Coal-fired plants kill more people each year than all nuclear accidents

combined. The pollution from Coal plants kill people with respiratory problems, more people every year than were killed by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima combined. That doesn't count mining accidents. Then there's oil. Anybody remember that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? The cheif method of using gasoline--driving cars--results in tens of thousands of deaths every year. Then there are wars for oil. The death toll of those gets a little controversial. But we can pretty "safely" say that oil has killed more people than the atomic bomb.

The only safe alternative is to go without energy consumption, and we can't.

We can't live, and certainly can't live well, without paying the butcher's bill for our energy needs. So we have to ask someone to do the lethal accounting to figure out which energy sources kill the fewest innocent bystanders. Do we have a sane alternative?

[PADemD]

17. yes, solar and wind

My car sits in the sun all day. If there were cheap solar panels on the roof, they could be charging a battery.

The Japanese even have wind/solar street lights

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2008/01/wind-and-solar-powered-streetlights-at-panasonic-japan/

[SpiralHawk]

38. + 1,000

Thanks, pad, for tossing in a bit of rationality against the bodacious bowlflush of nuclear propaganda...

[oldbanjo]

20. Coal is a lot safer Problems like Japan can contaminate

all the food that we eat, and right now is causing people in Seattle to be breathing in radioactive particles.

[AtheistCrusader]

23. Coal can and does damage our entire biosphere.

[civilisation]

21. Reversing un-sustainable over-consumption is the only solution,.

The problem is that people have been feed this lifestyle obsession of an idea that over consumption in normal, right, and the only way we can live,. which is of course utter bull crap. We can live within our means, with a higher quality of life, while consuming much much less,. it is like the QWERTY keyboard,. a layout of letters that was originally devised to SLOW DOWN the typist, as what it was designed the machines where mechanical and if one typed to quickly the mechanisms could get locked up,. the inefficient key layout persists (with a minority using more efficient systems; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard)

A similar history has lead to rampant over-consumption as a social norm. This was pushed by a capitalist system that put the profits of the few above all else,. advertising, socialization, and broken monetary system,. are a few of the things used to keep the consumption levels rising,. the system can, and must change,. energy is over abundant and wasted relentlessly in America,. people NEED far less than we take.

[wundermaus]

22. Try sitting in the dark.

And thinking about the millions of people we've killed and billions we will kill so we can continue to be energy hogs.
What alternatives do we have?
1. Start using more solar, wind, and geothermal energy.
2. Stop using coal, oil, and atomic energy sources.
3. Live on less energy consumption.
Those are our alternatives.

Kinda like flying to the moon.
Seemed impossible until we did it.
Just like that.

[plumbob]

26. Wind turbines are the way to go. You'll note that the Japanese wind farms

turned and are still turning, producing electricity with no fuel but the wind.

I live 10 minutes from a wind farm in Notrees, Texas that took 6 months to construct by Duke Energy and produces enough electricity for 44,000 homes, which just happens to be how many there are in my hometown of 100,000 people.

I like the 6 cent per KWH rate, too. With the old natural gas plants used by TXU, we were paying 20 cents.

Last winter, when DOZENS of natural gas, nuclear, and coal plants were shut in Texas because their incoming water lines froze, wind provided 25% of the entire electrical demand for Texas. And that was before completion of three new high capacity transmission lines, which will enable thousands more turbines already in place to come online.

Wind is not only sane, it's great!

[iowaliberal]

28. Nebraska is ranked as one of the top ten states for wind energy

However, I don't believe OPPD has any wind farms. Seven years ago I video taped a local activist while she asked the OPPD (Omaha Public Power District) members why OPPD doesn't invest in wind energy. The board member from Nebraska City (where a new coal plant was being built), literally rolled his eyes, and tried to stop the questioning on several occasions. Later, the president of OPPD talked to the activist (they both attended the same local university together), and said that Omaha is not anywhere close to where the wind was, and building the transmission lines were not cost effective.

Across the river, Iowa, with its privately held utilities, is 3rd in the nation in wind-energy production. Iowa isn't nearly as windy of a state.

[plumbob]

30. Yep, the folks who sell fuel to plants will go to any lengths to stop wind.

But it continues, anyway.

Thanks for the info about OPPD. My grandfather grew up in Blue Hill, and I do believe it was plenty windy ;)

[iowaliberal]

39. It's windy even in Omaha, but guess it's more lucrative to import coal from WY. :shrug:

[divvy]

11. Once again it is "Privatize the Profits" and "Socialize the Liabilities"

See the Price-Anderson act below
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/funds-fs.html

Edit: Wikipedia calls it the"Price–Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price%E2%80%93Anderson_Nuclear_Industries_Indemnity_Act

[Cowpunk]

36. One small problem with that observation

Both Nebraska nuclear plants are run by non-profit publicly owned utilities

[divvy]

37. nice catch ..... thanks

[Hubert Flottz]

15. Just another turd washing into shit creek...

The "Experts" are always on the job...Forgetaboutit.

[liberal N proud]

16. So many that I know and care about live too close to this

I have travel out to the area in July.

[Cowpunk]

33. Best article I've read so far about Ft. Calhoun

http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/dawn-stover/rising-water-falling-journalism

Skeptical and surprisingly free of baloney.

[AndyTiedye]

34. Nothing Can Go Wrong (click) Go Wrong (click) Go Wrong (click) Go Wrong (click) Go Wrong (click)

k/r

:nuke: :hide: