Fort Calhoun Nuke Plant, Feet Away from Core Damage
June 28, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman, Gregory Jaczko, said today that they are keeping a close eye on Fort Calhoun “to make sure that the Omaha Public Power District does the right thing.”
The nuclear power plant, located 19 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska, has been surrounded and partially covered in flood waters for days, precariously close to the point at which during 2009 the NRC said that Fort Calhoun faced “a 100% chance of core reactor damage caused by a flood rising above 1,010 feet.” (that is, feet above sea level).
The NRC chairman said today that the swelling Missouri River is expected to go no higher than 1,008 feet above sea level, six feet lower than the point at which ”safety systems” would fail.
There is an obvious discrepancy between the 2009 NRC statement and the current statement by the NRC chairman. A few feet of interpretation could make the difference between system failure leading to core damage, or no damage at all.
If I lived in Omaha, I would be keeping a close eye on this, to say the least. Having learned from the Fukushima-Japan nuclear disaster… that the utility company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government kept the truth from the mainstream for quite some time – at least until the news cycle had cooled down and switched over to other hot news topics, much trust was lost in organizations that have self-preservation as their main interest.
Although the current forecast is for the flood levels to stabilize, we all know how often the forecast is actually correct…
Video of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant Flooding
A rubber berm which was holding back flood waters, has failed and is causing flooding around the electrical transformers, forcing the plant to temporarily rely on backup power diesel generators.
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I am watching also Nebraska Cooper Station, and Omaha Fort Calhoun Plant.
They seem to be becoming slightly submerged in the Missouri River. Of course, ‘everything is fine, under control’
I guess we will see.
Out of all the nature disasters in history water has played the greatest contribution to deaths, destruction, loss of property, and suffering. Water should never be underestimated to just how much damage it can do, and how difficult it is to control and protect against. If some of these supercell thunderstorms ever erupt upstream from Ft. Calhoun and dump a lot of rainfall suddenly, they might not be able to do anything to protect the power plant then, NOTHING. Next month it has been 35 years since the Big Thompson Canyon flood, so this is getting into the season of drastic flash flooding around the Nebraska and Colorado region.
Hey, Ingot! & @ Ken as well, Ding, Ding, Ding, Another Winner and Response… Thank you for worthy efforts.” Ingot” you should submit for the “Safecastle Freeom Awards Contest” via M.S.B.. Best to you and yours. Survive-All…
So,New Orleans gets it in the pants again.
I keep looking at this picture wondering why there is not some sort of berm of sandbags, dirt, something there to at least try to hold back the water.??? I saw that one farm that had feet of sandbags and other material that saved their farm from going underwater. You would think that someone, private or government would be trying to protect something that could become catastrophic IF the conditions worsen for any reason. More water equals failure, why not construct something there to give the plant at least a little more leeway, a few more feet?????????????
There actually is a filled berm – if you look closely, it is colored black, right next to the main building area. HOWEVER, one of them reportedly opened up and let water in. The image that I chose was prior to that breech (couldn’t find one afterwards).
@ Ken. With something so essential to keep safe you would think that they would have 5 or more layers of berms, one right after the other, right up to the door of the reactor. This is something that they should be over killing big time. If a bunch of individuals with little engineering experience, if any, can protect their farm from flooding, the so called EXPERTS should absolutely be able to protect something of national security from going underwater. Yeah you would think.
I work in Omaha and live in the general area. Other than preppers in the area not many people are even keeping track of this. The other interesting thing is that the local media is not spending time on these stories at all. For the most part you do not hear much. When you do you get the usual message that OPPD and the Corps of Engineers have everything under control.
I have gone out and scouted some of the areas and a good friend is keeping tabs on radiation levels near his house in case he needs to evacuate his family. He lives near Ft. Calhoun. Right now things are OK in the area but not great.
Currently the biggest concern at the plants is the berms floating away due to either operator error or additional counter pressure. Upstream flooding is a concern as well. We have had additional rainfall that has left many areas with another 2-3 feet of pooled water. Aside from nuclear fears, the real issues at the moment are contaminated water and disease spreading.
Due to flooding up and down stream most of the ways south and north are restricted or cut off requiring detours in areas that add time and additional fuel costs to any bug out in those directions. I have currently had to re-evaluate my evacuation plans and make this a number one priority. I suggest others in the area look to their RP and LP spots and adjust appropriately.
Sounds like you are doing the right thing… planning another route just in case, and monitoring on your own. I find it to be incredible that your local media is barely covering the situation at Ft. Calhoun. Even though things are OK right now, the risk awareness is an important thing.
I too find it to be incredible that your local media is barely covering the situation at Ft. Calhoun. This situation, the Los Alamos situation, and the potential for catastrophic flooding due to the possible dam failure in Montana are all in need of reporting of the highest quality.
Keep yourselves prepared.
nomadicengineer- If the radiation levels start going up in the Fort Calhoun area, let the rest of us know too, ok? Thanks.
The Ft. Calhoun plant can’t suffer core damage because there hasnt been a core in the reactor since April. The plant was on shutdown in early April for refueling- it was decided in May that the plant would not be refueled until the flood waters passed. So, there is no possibility of core damage at this site.
There is a considerable amount of spent fuel within the facility- this was the concern weeks ago when the plant lost power. However, it is obviously much easier to cool a spent fuel pool than a reactor core. They are running on diesel backup power currently after flood water entered the electrical facilities and caused a shutdown. Biggest concern is sustained loss of power to the spent fuel pool, or damage to the spent fuel building that could allow flood water to enter the pool.
@gigs, 1st just because the reactor is “shutdown” doesn’t mean it is in cold shut down. One third of the reactor rods were removed with the intent of replacement. There has been the continued need to cool the two thirds of remaining reactor rods since the April “Shutdown”. like a tic -tac-toe game, if you remove one third of the grid you still end up with a configuration that has side by side rods. The reactor still has a core it’s just not full! Hence, the reason for the back-up generators. If it wasn’t HOT there would be no need… As to the volume of spent fuel on site, Fort Calhoun has under ground storage which has been under surface water since approximately by the 2nd week of june. Thankfully thus far independent sources haven’t found spiked radiation emissions. You can’t expect (Trust ) the NRC to give you the picture even in microfilm; which most wouldn’t notice and if they did, have the equipment to read it given that it wasn’t encrypted. If I lived anywhere near,especially down wind or down stream of Fort Calhoun I’d have left long ago. It’s time to get down and do the research and stop being a part of the flock. (I don’t mean You, I’m putting this out for All that find it. ) Survive-All… P.S. The under ground spent fuel storage is outside the water berm containment system that failed. Thus, it was exposed to surface water prior to it’s failure and has nothing to do with spent fuel pools… Save that it could become a spent fuel pool…
Yesterday, 6/28/2011, Alexander Higgins on his blog presented quite a few pertinent news reports and videos addressing current Fort Calhoun flooding issues and status (including the now viral Robert Knight Pacifica interviews with Arnie Gundersen). At the following link, these articles/videos are all presented at one place for easy access. Nice. Definitely worth a look!
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/28/fort-calhoun-nuclear-plant-underwater-references-10-mile-radius-evacuation-order-scrubbed-internet-news-sites-32161/
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Good grief. What in the world is going on? Pun intended.
Omaha World-Herald, Published Monday June 27, 2011:
“Nuke plant safe amid unique peril”
ONLY IN THE WORLD-HERALD
By Nancy Gaarder and Sam Womack
World-Herald Staff Writers
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110627/NEWS01/706279901
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Good overview of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant flooding/peril in Nebraska
Reply
IntelHub reported on June 26th:
“…Considering the face that the NRC has a long history of cover ups, it seems safe to say that whether or not the plant was safe, the NRC would claim the situation is under control….
“… The NRC says those buildings are designed to handle flooding up to 1014 feet above sea level. The river is at 1006.3 feet and isn’t forecast to exceed 1008 feet.”
http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/26/flood-wall-fails-at-fort-calhoun-nuclear-power-plant/
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Independent radiation reports done just prior to the water berm breaking, showed “…normal background radiation levels which indicates that there most likely has not been a release of radiation from the plant, at least not yet.” http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/26/flood-wall-fails-at-fort-calhoun-nuclear-power-plant/
I have not been able to find any more rad postings for the Fort Calhoun area, since the water berm broke. Anyone know what the radiation levels are at this point?
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Arnie Gundersen’s in depth comments about the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant flooding problems/perils. Especially pay close attention as to what could happen if one of the upstream dams should break under the tremendous pressure they are also receiving from the huge, unusual surplus of melting snows. Should an upstream dam break and should Fort Calhoun’s spent fuel storage pool become flooded, Gundersen chides that Fukushima would look like a mere x-ray next to Fort Calhoun. Let’s all pray that those upstream dams continue to hold.
http://bundes.blog.de/2011/06/19/u-s-a-arnie-gundersen-nuclear-power-plant-flooding-fort-calhoun-emergency-level-11341668/
Reply
ABC News interview with physicist Michio Kaku on: Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant; plus Los Alamos Nuclear Lab/Fire threats.
ABC NEWS.com (Wednesday, June 28, 2011)
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/los-alamos-nuclear-lab-dangers-13946272
“Los Alamos fire moves north: ‘It really hurts’”
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 1, 2011 3:06 p.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/01/new.mexico.los.alamos/index.html
Radioactive Leak at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station
Published on July 1, 2011 by Nenad.
by Rady Ananda
http://truthfrequencynews.com/?p=5884
“Levee Intentionally Blown Up Along Missouri River”, KETV, July 1, 2011:
[...] Pottawattamie County officials said a half-mile stretch of the Vanmann #30 levee [near Desoto Bend] was mechanically excavated and then lowered by using explosives.
Emergency Management Coordinator Jeff Theulen said he was alerted Friday morning that the levee may have been in the process of being intentionally breached.
About 20 minutes later, officials said they received calls from people wanting to know why levees were being blown up. One caller claimed to have witnessed the explosion.
Authorities said they’re investigating the levee breach. Pottawattamie County officials said no government entity had anything to do with the detonation, and they did not have advance notice from the people responsible for the breach. [...]
http://enenews.com/mystery-levee-intentionally-blown-ft-calhoun-nuke-plant-govt-entity-anything-detonation
Friday, 01 July 2011 18:15
Video: “CNN: Arnie Gundersen Explains Fort Calhoun Flooding”
“Short of an upstream dam failure, I think they’ll ride this one out. If an upstream dam were to fail, however, all bets are off.” -Arnie Gundersen
http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resources/must-see-videos/item/1166-cnn-arnie-gundersen-explains-fort-calhoun-flooding-6/30/11
All is quiet on the front at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station. Too quiet. Way too-o-o-o-o quiet! One wonder what exactly is going on, anyway. Only new piece of information I found was that the aqua dam is being re-installed at the good old Fort to make it easier for workers to, well, work. Re-installation should be completed by this Saturday.
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Published Thursday July 7, 2011
“OPPD reinstalls nuke plant dam”
By Nancy Gaarder
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102×4909768
Calhoun Plant, why in every report they say the plant is safe but never the pool of rods. I believe that again we see their lips moving so they must be lying. They claim that no radiation has leaked but again refer to plant no reference to pool of rods. How can you have the pools flooded and not radiate the water in the river? When the water lowers are they going to have problems cooling the rods as I believe the cooling water is heavy water. Why I believe so is you can make the pools smaller by reducing reaction with heavy water even though it is more expensive.
“Majia’s Blog
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Fort Calhoun and EPA Radnet Data July 17 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Omaha Nebraska 125 beta, gamma energy range 10 (46), range 2 (2383), range 3 (1512), range 4 (438), range 5 (251)
Lincoln Nebraska 80 beta
Pierre South Dakota 135 beta (relatively high)
Rapid City South Dakota 68 beta
Des Moines under review
Mason City 102 beta (higher than usual)
Kansas City 0 beta
Wichita under review
NEBRASKA’S LEVELS ARE NOT BEING INFLUENCED BY THE JET STREAM
http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag192.html
FORT CALHOUN REMAINS THE LOGICAL SOURCE OF THESE RADIATION READINGS”
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/fort-calhoun-and-epa-radnet-data-july.html
Thanks Merlin, for the updates.
Hey Otter, thanks for the info about the storage and things, and @ Ken for covering this…
Otter, we do live down river…and all of the tap water used here comes from the river. Aside from the other obvoius issues with the plants becoming a little submerged.
I have been missing from here, getting things together to move. Less than two weeks, and we are moving to a state with no nuclear plants. But all set to go quickly if we had to.
I am lurking and reading what you guys find too, and appreciate every bit of it. Not a peep locally about it. No one seems to know or be concerned.
I would trust the Army Corps to do things well and be honest, about as much as I would ask a mosquito to check if I had any mosquito bites.
I would like to see a plant diagram, drawing of the facility…but I cannot find one yet.
We will see what happens.
@ Ingot, O.K., The time has come… The local of choice, researched for a total of more than fifty years of combined effort and the lesser of any and all evils is the Bitter Root Valley in Montana. There, I have broken a vow. I can feel o.k. about this as my fellow researchers are beyond the veil. As for me; My concern is the future of our children’s, children’s, children’s… Thousands of factors have been weighed, location,( Topography ) jet stream, etc… All have been factored in to find an area that has the top potential for over all survival. Food availability, food growth potential, pure water via springs from deep within.( Read between the lines as regard nuclear issues… ) I could go on with all of the factors if we had weeks or months… This, for the lower 48 is the ZONE. To all of you that have known this and are there, please forgive me for dispersing this information. The time has come for the Tribe to be given the word…. “Otter” Vision> ” Wake the Sleepers “… The time for a better life is come. This is a starting point… Survive-All… @ A/Mer… Bealtaine a thabhairt do chuid iarrachtai’ duit fuinnimh. Dia Dhuit… @ Ken, The healing energies flow, exponential in growth… Best to you, Be Healed Now…
@ A/mer… Look to the @ Ingot post for message… “Otter” Survive-All…
The following article about Fort Calhounn was found on the:
Majia’s Blog
Sunday, July 31, 2011
“What is Being Hidden at Fort Calhoun?”
“Why is it that no recent photographs of Fort Calhoun nuclear plant are available?
I just conducted a search on metacrawler for Fort Calhoun to find ANY recent news.
I did find a story published July 27 by a local news site, the Abderene News, stating the plant will not be restrated until the flooding receeds.
http://www.aberdeennews.com/sns-bc-ne–missouririverflooding-nuclearsafety,0,258178.story
Yet the image accompanying the story is from June 14.
Another story with no new news published within the last few days also relies on the same June 14 image.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jul/27/officials-planning-flood-recovery-nebraska-nuclear/
Why aren’t more recent images available?
Let me put this another way, if all is FINE with the plant then why aren’t the media allowed to “cover it” in order to reassure the nation that the plant is safe?
Here is an excerpt from the story linked above that is worth noting:
“Fort Calhoun employees have been using an elevated catwalk more than a quarter-mile-long each day to cross the flooded parking lot. But the utility has been able to keep the inside of its buildings and key equipment mostly dry with a network of flood barriers and a number of pumps. The main building at Fort Calhoun is at 1,004 feet above sea level, which is about 2 feet below Wednesday’s river level of 1,005 feet, 9 inches.” http://www.aberdeennews.com/sns-bc-ne–missouririverflooding-nuclearsafety,0,258178.story
MAJIA HERE: let me repeat a key part of a sentence: “the utility has been able to keep the inside of its buildings and key equipment MOSTLY DRY with a network of flood barriers and a NUMBER OF PUMPS.”
That does not sound good.
And tonight’s radnet data make me think that yes the plant is VENTING “low levels” of radiation as hydrogen builds upon in spent fuel pools not sufficiently cooled by generators (this is simply my hypothesis based on the radiation release patterns I’ve observed).
Radnet data 7/31 10:20 PM Pacific Time
Omaha 112 beta
Lincoln NE 84 beta
Wichita 0 beta
Kansas city under review
Des Moines IA under review
Mason City 84 beta
Bismark ND under review
Pierre SD 112 beta
Rapid City SD under review
MN/St Paul under review
Billings MT 0 beta
Milwaukee WI under review
Detroit MI 0 beta
Grand Rapids Mi 62 beta
Bay City MI 75 beta”
https://cdxnode64.epa.gov/radnet-public/monitorView.do
“Posted by Majia’s Blog at 10:34 PM”
Otter- Thanks for your info. Bitter Root Valley looks beautiful. Your home?
You asked about my Gaelic dialect– Google search and my Irish friends. What does, “Bealtaine a thabhairt do chuid iarrachtai’ duit fuinnimh” mean?
Dia Dhuit, Otter.
@A/mer, In my dialect… The translation is “May your efforts give you energy… Though deeper meaning includes,” May energy be bestowed upon you” One day we meet… Dia Dhuit… As per this post The “Fort” continues to be too close to home and major issue. There have been reported detections of spikes of transuranic nature. It is what it is. Awareness is a start toward Preparedness… Survive-All… P.S. Glad you found that, things are moving faster and as such get buried. Unless you check the archives information is missed. Good Man…
Otter, things are not always what they first appear.
Angusmerlin,
The Magician
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To all Modern Survival Bloggers:
Found some active, useful links for EPA RadNet gross beta CPM data– EPA data links that still work:
1. EPA gross beta CPM data presented ‘graph’ style: New Higgins EPA data link, “Real Time EPA RadNet Japan Nuclear Radiation Monitoring”: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/04/12/realtime-epa-radnet-japan-nuclear-radiation-monitoring-every-us-city-single-page-16511/
The Higgins link provides easy to access EPA gross beta CPM data in quick view ‘graph’ format. I have found Higgins link data to be consistent to the EPA data that I personally have pulled up via EPA RadNet Query search charts. (A word of caution, sometimes the EPA will go back and pull data entries, or change them(?). Not often, but it happens.) To view overall trends, the Higgins CPM beta graphs are a nice way to go.
2. EPA gross beta CPM data presented ‘chart’ style: To check for hourly gross beta CPM data, the EPA RadNet Search Query approach is useful, though more difficult to access. Two currently working EPA RadNet Query data links:
https://cdxnode64.epa.gov/radnet-public/monitorView.do
http://www.epa.gov/radnet/radnet-data/
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Happy RadNet hunting!
Aise (thank you) Otter…next move. For now this is where the dream went. Close by, but not quite there…seems to only be a few of us in this thread, so just a trickle, and then it fades away.
But we are here in CO…we used to live in the Lakeside area, then to the east coast and making our way back.
I will not forget though, and we will make our way back there soon. Maybe sooner as things go.
Fort Calhoun is silent…not a peep about it, and more heavy rain headed that way. Thanks Merlin for the Majia and the radnet.
Been looking, Ingot. Everything is simply dead silent on Fort Calhoun!
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You are welcome for the above Majia and PadNet post links.
@ A/Mer…, Given a lot of I guess I’d say Feeling to that intro from August 12th 2011 1:17 a.m. Think I have finally got a handle on your between the lines? hope you are well and look forward to hearing from you soon. We need you input. Stay safe.. Live life well… Survive with much Medicine and Magic…