UPDATE: 6-24-2011
WAS THIS BREACH CREATED ON PURPOSE? SEEMS LIKE THE LIKELY SUSPECT!
Nebraska Nuke Plant Relieved By Breach In Missouri River Levee
 Image: Associated Press |
The rising Missouri River last night breached a levee just three miles upstream from the Cooper Nuclear Power Station in Nebraska.
Nearby Mills County, Iowa, and Atchison County, Missouri, have ordered some residents to evacuate the area due to rapidly rising flood waters.
“This is a large breach and water will be moving rapidly. Persons should stay out of this area if previously evacuated due to danger,”Atchison County Emergency Management said in a statement.
The Cooper plant is one of two nuclear power stations in Nebraska that remain threatened by the rising waters of a severely flooded Missouri River. Both are under "notification of unusual event" alerts, the lowest of four nuclear emergency classifications.
The Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) which runs the Cooper power station says the plant is safe despite still-rising floodwaters. Unlike the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station upstream, which has been shut down since April for refueling, the Cooper plant is still in operation.
The Associated Press is reporting that rather than putting the plant in greater jeopardy, the breach in the levee has had the positive effect of lowering the level of the river around the Cooper plant.
While the water level at the plant on Thursday was seven inches short of that at which plant owners have said they would shut down production, the breach in the levee caused the river level to fall by nearly two feet this morning, allowing plant officials to breathe a much-needed sigh of relief.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/river-breaches-levee-3-miles-from-nebraska-nuke-plant-residents-ordered-to-evacuate-2011-6#ixzz1QDIPSfuz
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Levee Breach Downriver Means Reprieve For Nuclear Plant
Brownville, NE - (AP) - The failure of a Missouri River levee in northwest Missouri offered a brief reprieve Friday from flooding near the Cooper nuclear power plant in southeast Nebraska, although officials expect the waterway to rise back up to a threatening level.
The National Weather Service said the river dropped more than a foot at Brownville to 43.1 feet Friday morning after the breach Thursday evening upstream in northwest Missouri. Before the breach, the river had been 44.8 feet deep at Brownville.
The river would have to rise to 46.5 feet before it reaches Cooper, which is owned by the Nebraska Public Power District, but the plant would be shut down as a precaution if the river reached 45.5 feet.
The weather service predicted that the river at Brownville will rise over the weekend back to a similar level to earlier this week.
The Army Corps of Engineers predicts it will rise another 3 to 5 inches on top of that by early next week.
The corps has been releasing water from dams upstream where heavy spring rain and snow melt have bloated the waterway, causing a rapid rise in the river elsewhere. Releases at Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota hit 160,000 cubic feet of water per second on Thursday, and the corps planned to continue releasing water at that rate until at least August.
The river is expected to remain 5 to 7.5 feet above flood stage in Nebraska and Iowa throughout the summer, and water levels could swell more than 10 feet above flood stage at places in Missouri.
Experts with the National Weather Service and the corps have said that levee breaches will provide only temporary decreases in water levels because there is still so much water flowing downstream. Once the water flowing through a failed levee spreads out, the pressure will build up and the river will rise again.
NPPD officials have been monitoring river levels closely during the flooding, and they have already brought in more than 5,000 tons of sand to build barricades protecting the Cooper plant and its access roads. Some internal doorways have also been barricaded with flood gates to protect equipment.
Last Sunday, Cooper nuclear plant sent a low-level alert to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, called a "notification of unusual event," because of the rising river, so regulators are also watching the situation closely.
Nebraska's other nuclear power plant, Fort Calhoun, issued a similar notice on June 6. That power plant, about 20 miles north of Omaha, remains shut down because of concerns about the water level there.
The river at Blair, near Fort Calhoun, was 32.5-feet-deep Friday morning, which is 6 feet above flood stage, causing moderate flooding of low-lying areas. The Omaha Public Power District, which owns Fort Calhoun, said a series of protective barriers have stopped the advance of floodwaters and protected the nuclear plant.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials say both NPPD and OPPD have taken appropriate measures to protect their nuclear power plants.
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Online:
Nebraska Public Power District: www.nppd.com
Omaha Public Power District: www.oppd.com
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov
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URGENT: NEBRASKA NUCLEAR FACILITIES IN EMERGENCY SITUATION
Here are summaries from various news outlets, along with links to keep you completely informed.
Flooding in Nebraska Threatens Nuclear Power Plants
By Matthew Rothschild, June 22, 2011
The sight of a nuclear power plant in Nebraska surrounded by the rising waters of the flooding Missouri River is cause for alarm, to say the least.
...the Fort Calhoun plant...the flooding is at record levels. And the New York Times reports that “water levels at the Fort Calhoun Station rose 1,006 feet above sea level Monday,” and that the reactor “is protected against floods that reach 1,014 feet.”
...“There’s always the possibility of the situation escalating, especially when we don’t control all the variables. That’s what happened in Japan.”
...Another nuclear power plant in Nebraska, the Cooper Nuclear Station, is also in a flood zone, and the rising waters are causing worries there, too...
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Project Flood nuclear 'alert': Obama, Red Cross declare emergencies
Project Flood 2011 and tornados meet two nuclear stations
Two United States nuclear power plants are on alert and President Obama has declared emergencies in Nebraska's counties where the two nuclear stations are both experiencing "unusual events." The official emergency declarations apply to both counties where the nuclear facilities are threatened with flood waters. Red Cross closed its emergency shelter at Fort Calhoun, home of one of the nuclear facilities, and is now referring and transitioning evacuees to other shelters. Red Cross is due to assess Fort Calhoun when conditions permit.
"Massive flooding along the Missouri River has put Nebraska's two nuclear plants, both near Omaha, on alert," reported Amy Goodman for The Guardian on Wednesday.
...There is a "foot-deep pool next to the reactor for spent fuel rods."
Burnett furthers, however, that "the pool was so full in 2009, they were sealing the fuel rods up in dry casks and sticking them in an on-site ‘mausoleum’."
"This, of course, is why there is a no-fly zone around the plant — someone might realize that wherever the fuel casks and underground fuel pools are, they are NOT inside the condom."
Arthur Hu found the dry-storage bunker was half-submerged outside the condom.
"No one really knows what their condition is – or even if the spent fuel is still on-site. No one in the major media is asking the question, and the operators aren’t saying," reported Burnett today.
Event Number: 46965, Current Event Notification Report for June 17, 2011, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, June 17, 2011 reported, "There is one penetration of concern that could impact pumps."
That report included:
http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/project-flood-nuclear-alert-obama-red-cross-declare-emergencies"Facility: FORT CALHOUNNotification Date: 06/16/2011Notification Time: 14:46 [ET]Event Date: 06/16/2011Event Time: 12:30 [CDT]Event Text: ADDITIONAL PENETRATION IDENTIFIED FOR MITIGATION DURING WALKDOWN“Operations identified a potential flooding issue in the Intake Structure 1007 ft. 6 in. level. The area of concern is a the hole in the floor at the 1007 ft. 6 in. level where the relief valve from FP-1A discharge pipe goes through the raw pump bay and discharges into the intake cell. There is one penetration of concern. Flooding through this penetration could have impacted the ability of the station’s Raw Water (RW) pumps to perform their design accident mitigation functions.“Efforts are in progress to seal the penetration.This eight-hour notification is being made pursuant to 10 CFR 50.72 (b)(3)(v).”The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector."
Flood waters surrounding Nebraska nuke plants concerning, but not yet critical
By Lynda Waddington | 06.22.11 | 7:00 am
Flood Rumor Control | ||
Flood Rumor Control Following are responses to flood-related rumors that OPPD has heard about. Rumor: The White House has declared a media blackout on news about Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station
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The Cooper Nuclear Power Station is seen near Brownville, Neb., Sunday, June, 19, 2011. When the Missouri River reached 42.5 feet, or 899 feet above sea level Sunday morning, the Nebraska Public Power District issued a flooding alert for its nuclear power plant, Cooper Nuclear Station. Cooper, located near Brownville, 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. Photo: Dave Weaver / AP
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The supply of sand used to fill hundreds of thousands of bags needed to fight off the swollen Missouri River is running low after weeks of relentless flooding. It's a problem that could get worse as the river is expected to remain high through August, making it unsafe to gather sand from the easiest place to get it: the river itself.
The sand shortage comes as the bloated river rose to within 18 inches of forcing the shutdown of Cooper Nuclear Plant at Brownville, Neb. It stopped and ebbed slightly Monday, a reprieve caused by levee breaches in northwest Missouri.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Sand-shortage-causes-concern-for-flood-fighters-1431537.php#ixzz1Q1zczjsO
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FILE - In this June 14, 2011 file photo, the Fort Calhoun nuclear power station, in Fort Calhoun, Neb., is surrounded by flood waters from the Missouri River. The pictures of a Nebraska nuclear power plant were startling: Floodwaters from the swollen Missouri River had risen nearly to the reactor building, with the potential to climb even higher. Coming only a few months after Japan's nuclear disaster, the Associated Press images alarmed many people who saw them earlier this week. But nuclear regulators and the utility that runs the Fort Calhoun reactor say there is little cause for immediate concern.
more:http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/17/2958429/floodwaters-might-hit-kc-by-midweek.html#ixzz1Q1zrtdZf
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Nebraska Nuclear Plant Lost Cooling System After Fire
By RYAN TRACY
WASHINGTON—A nuclear power plant north of Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday briefly lost the ability to cool a pool of used nuclear fuel after a fire at the site, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.
...The agency declared an alert, the second of four emergency classes, at 9:40 a.m., 10 minutes after "an indication of fire" in a building at the plant. The NRC didn't disclose the cause of the fire. Automatic fire control systems activated and the fire was out by 10:20 a.m., the agency said. The plant is operated by the Omaha Public Power District.Write to Ryan Tracy at ryan.tracy@dowjones.com
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