What Just Happened at Nebraska’s Cooper Nuclear Station?

[pokerfan]

Hey, at least I'm upwind of this one!

Something not good has gone down at Cooper Nuclear Station, an electrical power plant near the Missouri River in southeast Nebraska. The region has been flooding steadily for weeks, and with river levels rising, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released water from two dams on Saturday in anticipation of more heavy rains this week.

More: http://gawker.com/5813448/what-just-happened-at-nebraskas-cooper-nuclear-station

[MineralMan]

1. Yes, flooding is happening. Whether it will actually affect the

Cooper plant or not remains to be seen. Last I saw, they hadn't started a shutdown and plant officials seemed confident that flood waters would not rise enough to pose a major risk. They've made the necessary preparations, however. If serious flooding is imminent, the plant will be shut down. They're not just standing around with their thumbs up their asses, you know.

There's a detailed flood plan for the plant.

[Pharaoh]

6. And of course

they always tell us the truth!

[MineralMan]

15. Did I say that? I don't believe I did.

I know of nobody who "always tells us the truth." A lot of bogus stuff gets posted here, even, you know. You do know, right? Is the "Obama Regime" blocking out the truth? Do only the Russians have the real facts?

[democrat_patriot]

8. Why would a nuclear reactor need a flood plan? Why would anyone

build one where there could be flooding?

Are we as a species really that stupid?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

10. Uh, yes we are that stupid. See California/nukes/earthquakes

[ergot]

11. No kidding...they should all be out in the desert, and cooled with cactus juice.

:eyes:

[MineralMan]

13. Nuclear plants need lots and lots of cooling water. Most are

built adjacent to a source of that, either on a river on near the ocean. If you look at a map of US nuclear power plants, you'll see that most are in a place that has the potential for flooding.

Here's just such a map:

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/map-power-reactors.html

Most are on rivers. Some are on coastlines.

[JDPriestly]

23. They all need to be dismantled.

We are in the midst of climate change. That means rising seas and flooding rivers. Obviously, rising seas and flooding rivers endanger nuclear power plants that border them.

So, we are going to have to change our energy policy.

Nuclear has not worked out. And it will become more dangerous with passing time and rising water.

The ice caps are melting. There is no question about that. And they are not going to refreeze in the next few years.

[jwirr]

18. There have been floods in that area almost every year. This one is

just worse.

[Atman]

12. self delete (potential inaccuracies in my post).

Deleted, because I think I was confusing the Ft. Calhoun plant and this one. Shit. Two of 'em now, huh?

[suffragette]

14. Let's also hope they rectified their fire protection procedures

Looks like that plant has had some safety issues recently.

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2011/06/14/4df6c86c3554e

Cooper Nuke Plant Will Get More NRC Oversight

Cooper Nuclear Station will receive additional oversight from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of problems with procedures needed to safely shutdown the plant in the event of some fires.

The plant, operated by the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), is located in southeast Nebraska, near Brownville in Nemaha County.

NRC inspectors said some of the station’s procedures for manually operating valves – which are part of system for releasing coolants under high pressure – wouldn’t work in the event of a fire. The independent emergency cooling system is one means available to provide water to cool the reactor in case of an emergency.

“Fire protection programs are a critical component in plant safety and the NRC is paying special attention to ensure takes actions to fully correct this issue,” according to Region IV Administrator Elmo E. Collins.

[suffragette]

16. Hmm, if you delete this, will my reply be orphaned?

[MineralMan]

17. They won't delete it. No worries.

[Atman]

19. No, and thanks for your reply.

Just for those curious, and made comments about "the Nebraska plant" based upon a news story I had read, and didn't realize there was a second reactor under threat of flooding. At the one I read about, which suffragette responded to, the diesel fuel tanks which supplied fuel to the back-up generators, were buried but their pumps were above ground. The concern was that a flood would take out the fuel pumps, robbing the generators of fuel, and there you go...another Fukushima, with no electricity available to keep the cooling water flowing in. But I wasn't sure if this was at the Fort Calhoun plant, or the other one, so I deleted it instead of leaving up possibly bad info.

[suffragette]

22. It can get very confusing, I agree

For example, the fire reported recently was at the Fort Calhoun plant.

The article I posted about issues with fire safety procedures was about the Cooper plant.


Good thing the fire was not at the Cooper plant given the issues.

[Warpy]

2. Last word I saw was at MSNBC

that the river hadn't risen enough this morning just upstream to force a shutdown.

Uh, not real sure about that, it was within 3 feet already last night.

[democrat_patriot]

3. 2nd nuclear reactor under water in Nebraska

Is there a 6 mile no fly zone around this one as well?

Where is the MSM - this is a great 'sensationalist' story. Could really eat up a 24 hour news cycle.

Unless there's another Bubble Boy.....

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Neither of them are "under water" but kudos on the hyperbolic sensationalism

It does liven up the place.

[leveymg]

4. Don't fucking do that - even if you're just repeating a sensational headline.

Nuclear incident scaremongering is a strong NO-NO. DON'T.

[rurallib]

5. the time stamp says last night at 9:30

haven't heard anything today. Stay safe, I hope.

[Brickbat]

7. They've notified the feds of a Level 4 NRC alert. That's the same alert the Ft. Calhoun plant went

to recently.

[Maru Kitteh]

21. And people should know that level 4 is the LOWEST LEVEL OF ALERT.

It works backwards, like the defcon scale. 1 is the highest.

[ergot]

9. Did you read the last paragraph of the story in that link?

You could have found some even more hysterical "news" to report...