Nebraska Flood-Update on Cooper and Fort Calhoun Nuclear Stations

Suite101.com Blog ^ | Published Jun 23, 2011 | Darla Sue Dollman

[redgolum]

Family back home said we might not be able to get there for the Fourth. No good way to get across the Missouri.

Fort Calhoun is 40 or so miles from my parents house. Not a good thing.

[HereInTheHeartland]

It didn’t break. Someone won’t be driving a skid loader in the near future.

[HereInTheHeartland]

” No good way to get across the Missouri.”

I understand the main I 80 route through Omaha is still ok. And I thought 680 over and across through Blair was still ok?

[justa-hairyape]

Fort Calhoun is 40 or so miles from my parents house.

My guess is you want to be up wind. In fact, some may not be able to get up wind because they cannot cross the Missouri traveling east to west. Access roads are a mess.

We have new reports now about what happened at Fort Calhoun. See below links. The breaking of the levee surrounding the plant knocked out the diesel generators or what ever on site power they were using. They had to switch to batteries while they switched to off site power. They are now running on off site power. Darn good thing they ran that line ? Plan is to repair the levee dam. And note - Fort Calhoun is not running. Just holding a lot of dirty rods.

Floodwaters Breach Nebraska Nuke Berm

NRC chair tours Cooper plant

Rain should be leaving later today until next weekend. Should give them sometime to assess the damage.

Oh, and the GE/NRC spokesman said these are not the droids you are looking for.

Later.

[justa-hairyape]

There are conflicting stories out there now. This one claims that the levee break at Fort Calhoun caused the plant to routinely switch to backup diesel power and disconnect from off site power. After checking off-site power, they switched back to off-site power.

Back-up generators put to use at Nebraska nuclear plant

[redgolum]

Highway 30 through Blair is shut down, and I 29 north to Onawa is closed.

My parents live north of Omaha, and my mother in law north of Sioux City. We can get to either one, but it will take some doing.

[redgolum]

They can head west if needed. That is up wind for the most part.

I heard from friends near by that the diesel generators are knocked out. Why they build those in the basement I will never know. The new line is good, but with all the storms that is a thin life line.

[justa-hairyape]

They should have good weather for a few days. Some reports claim water is seeping into buildings. Nothing confirmed on that yet.

[MeganC]

The net is swimming right now with reports of a “10 Mile Mandatory Evacuation Area” being implemented right now.

Anyone able to confirm this or dispel this as a rumor?

[justa-hairyape]

Around Fort Calhoun ? Been doing google searches on Fort Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear for at least a week. Have not seen anything about evacuation zones. We do have a US senator asking the Army Corps of Engineers to consider the Nuclear Plants when they determine water releases from dams. Apparently they were not considering the Nuclear Plant flooding.

Nelson Asks Corps To Consider Nuclear Plants

[justa-hairyape]

Found the web blog that appears to be the source of the rumor. This guy actually broke something important early on with regards to Fukushima, if I remember right. He states all references to the evacuation order were scrubbed from the MSM, well that could explain why I have not seen any mention. But it could also be just a false report. His page is quite extensive though, and he has an ABC video where the evacuation supposedly is discussed. Have no idea myself, will check it out later today when I have time.

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant Underwater- References of 10 Mile Mandatory Evacuation Area Scrubbed From News Sites

FYI - The Army Corps of Engineers has stated that there will be consequences for people spreading false rumors. Just posting the above link for informational purposes and because you asked about it.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Anyone able to confirm this or dispel this as a rumor?”

Funny!
My daughter would let me know if that was true!! It’s not.

[HereInTheHeartland]

If people want to know if something crazy like this was happening, either of these 2 sources would be all over it:

http://www.omaha.com/

http://www.kfab.com/main.html

[Osage Orange]

Are you implying that wind blown radiation is likely.....

[justa-hairyape]

Only if they lose cooling for the Spent Fuel Pool. That would require off site power loss, backup generator loss and the batteries running out of power. The odds of that are pretty slim, however, if we lose one of those big dams upstream, all bets are off.

At any rate, some of the videos of Fort Calhoun are very depressing. They must have a couple dozen sump pumps moving water out from sandbagged buildings and structures. And this flood is supposed to last through August.

[justa-hairyape]

Watched the ABC video at the link above and see the problem. The NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko was stating that all Nuclear Plants have a 10 mile evacuation plan around them in case of an emergency release situation. The ABC reporter however lead Jaczko’s statement with a poorly worded statement that the evacuation zone had been implemented. The reporter meant to state the evacuation zone was already pre-planned in case of an emergency.

[Osage Orange]

Okay thanks....

It very much appeared you were saying radiation was probable / likely. And we all should be looking to be up-wind.

Thanks for clearing that up........