Video Update:
Floodwater seeps into Nebraska nuke plant building
OMAHA -- Missouri River floodwater seeped into the turbine building at a nuclear power plant near Omaha on Monday, but plant officials said the seepage was expected and posed no safety risk because the building contains no nuclear material.
Omaha Public Power District spokesman Jeff Hanson said Monday that seepage was expected at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and that pumps are handling the problem.
Hanson says no nuclear material is kept in the turbine building and that "everything is secure and safe." The plant has been closed for refueling since April.
Here's a schematic of a PWR nuke plant. Turbines play an important role.
After the hot water has passed through the turbine, some of its energy is changed into electricity. However, the water is still very hot. It must be cooled somehow. Many nuclear power plants used steam towers to cool this water with air. These are generally the buildings that people associate with nuclear power plants. At reactors that do not have towers, the clean water is purified and dumped into the nearest body of water, and cool water is pumped in to replace it.
It sounds like Ft Calhoun may only have a 1 foot of increased flooding margin of error.
From the New York Times:
......show it encircled by the swollen waters of the Missouri River, which reached a height of nearly 1,007 feet above sea level at the plant yesterday.
And the water will continue to rise.
The plant's defenses include new steel gates and other hard barriers protecting an auxiliary building with vital reactor controls, and a water-filled berm 8 feet tall that encircles other parts of the plant. Both systems are designed to hold back floodwaters reaching 1,014 feet above sea level.
The AquaDam water berm was installed beginning June 4, 2011!
The 2,000 foot long, 8 foot high Aqua Berm is now GONE as of yesterday!
Additional concrete barriers and permanent berms, more sandbags and another power line into the plant have been added.
But water leaked into the turbine building. Why?
....a year ago, those new defenses were not in place, and the plant's hard barriers could have failed against a 1,010-foot flood, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission contends ...
The water is at 1007 according to the NY Times article.
BUT
NRC inspectors concluded that at flooding levels above 1,008 feet, the plant "would experience a loss of offsite power and loss of intake structure" and water pumps providing essential cooling water to the plant.
In that case, "the plant would be incapable of reaching cold shutdown" with normal operations -- a fundamental safety requirement imposed by the NRC. agreeing to install the additional defenses this year.
Emphasis mine.
So, no it doesn't sound like 1014 ft is the level of protection. The 8 foot Aqua Dam/Berm no longer exists.
Based on the NRC conclusion that at 1008 feet there will be big problems, how are we to conclude anything else other than
The Ft Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant has a one foot flood increase margin of error?
It is with a heavy heart that I point this out.
Once again, we find ourselves sitting on a precipice.
Those in charge of our safety say All Is Well, Under Control.
Those in close proximity to the potential Event, as the nuclear industry likes to call them, require complete information in order to make measured, individual judgements.
Perhaps the family will take that vacation now instead of in August. Just saying.
So, please and on behalf of all those affected by the decisions of those who are keeping radioactive material safe and sound
GIVE US ALL THE DETAILS
Nuts
Bolts
Kinds and numbers of generators on site for back up
Best case scenarios
and
Worst case scenarios
Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I believe people remain more level headed and in less of a panic when they are given the
FACTS, STRAIGHT UP.
For previous diaries covering Fort Calhoun and Cooper Nuke plants
Click here.
Within these diaries, you will find great links to relevant information, news organizations in and around Nebraska, and a wealth of information and public sentiment in the comment streams.
And today, for the first time in a long time, it is not raining in Nebraska and the Dakotas.
Tune in here, NOAA's 24 hour weather loop to keep an eye on storms.
This weather map gives a good glimpse of severe weather danger areas, too.
Sun Sentinel, also my favorite hurricane watch link.
Here's the map of the Dams and the flood areas:
From yesterday's diary:
The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant in Nebraska looked like this on Friday:
And on June 18th it looked like this:
LOOK AT THE WATER UPSTREAM FROM THE PLANT. The flooding is hugely wide spread. This isn't a wave of water, this is a new lake that will be here through August according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
And Dakotas adjacent Canadian neighbors are flooding! And...it's going to keep raining, and levees everywhere north of nuke plants are breaching, and snow pack flooding expected to last until August!
I think people need to see, hear, and know about this stuff so they can plan.