Nebrska nuke plant under water

[Sara S]

It's flooded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvvmrB7qEg

[hales]

OMG, thanks for posting this important story, Sara..

It's flooded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvvmrB7qEg

[leela8]

US orders news fricking blackout:

https://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-...r-Plant-report

US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report


A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.



According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area.
Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.”
Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an “outright falsehood” as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the “events” occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the “Level 4” emergency category of an “accident with local consequences” thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.
Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of “negligible release of nuclear gasses” related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for “political purposes” it risks a “serious blowback” from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.
Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that “the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is “unacceptable” and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.”

[leela8]

alarmist wording aside (it is alarming after all) here is another relatively clear summary of the nebraska situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObNr83HGQwo

[Sara S]

Spiking Conspiracy Theories About Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant
The reactor is reported to be in no danger as the Missouri River hits flood stage
The Missouri River flooding is bringing waves of concern nationwide about the safety of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant.

Business Insider, a news aggregator, has a story and a video predicting all manner of nuclear catastrophe at the Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant. Readers might ask what is really going on?

The answer is that while the Missouri River is rising, the reactor is safe. As the flood waters continue to rise, a spokesman for Omaha Public Power District says the plant is at a "notification of unusual event" classification because of the flood.

It is required by the NRC because of the flood. That is the lowest level in an emergency. Company officials say there has been no release of radioactivity at Fort Calhoun Station due to the flooding and none is expected.

Plant in cold shutdown

The Omaha Public Power District has been prepared for the floods and the plant is safe. It has been in a cold shutdown since April because of a planned refueling. Although water from the Missouri is higher than the plant now; the vital area of the plant is surrounded by a 2,000-foot long berm that takes the protective level up about six feet -- to 1,010 feet or five feet above the river level. As of J10 AM June 16, the water is at 1,005 feet.

According to plant officials and the NRC the emergency power diesel are primed to come on if the loss of offsite power is imminent. Enough diesel fuel has been stockpiled to run the plant for a month, and the generators are in hardened (flood protected) bunkers. Provisions have been made for resupply if necessary. And extra diesel has been laid in. switchyard is protected with a berm up to 1011 feet.

FAA “no fly zone”

Also, there are concerns because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a “no fly” zone over the reactor. (Complete FAA NOTAM image)(large)

I spoke by phone with Mike Jones, a spokesman for the plant. He told me that due to the rising flood waters, a lot of planes and news helicopters were flying over the reactor and some were coming in quite low.

The plant manager told the FAA he was concerned they might collide with power lines or each other. This is the reason the FAA issued a Notice to Airmen banning over-flights of the reactor. The NRC says this isn’t a an issue regarding the potential release of radiation.

Here’s what the NRC’s spokesman said about it

“After last week’s Alert, and with all the interest in flooding on the Missouri, news helicopters began flying near the plant. We understand that the plant owner contacted the FAA and asked them to remind pilots of the basic NOTAM is still in effect. As far as we can tell that had zero to do with the plant operations and everything to do with assisting in flood relief.”

And now for the rest of the story

The Omaha Public Power District has a web page to spike other rumors. Here’s a summary.

Rumor: Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is at a Level 4 emergency or level 4 alert.

This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.
Fort Calhoun Station (FCS) declared a Notification of Unusual Event (NOUE) on June 6. A NOUE is the least-serious of four emergency classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
FCS declared a NOUE because the Missouri River was projected to reach 1,004 feet above mean sea level. (It reached that height on June 9.)
The FCS plant’s reactor has been in cold shut down for a planned refueling outage since April 9. It will remain in that condition until the river recedes.
The reactor and spent-fuel pool are in a normal, stable condition and are both protected; there has been no release of radioactivity and none is expected.
Rumor: A no-fly zone was set up around Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station because of a release of radiation, similar to what happened with the Fukushima reactors in Japan.

There has been no release of radioactivity at Fort Calhoun Station due to the flooding and none is expected.
The flight restrictions were set up by the FAA as a result of Missouri river flooding.
OPPD’s extensive, preplanned actions to protect the FCS reactor and spent-fuel pool from the floodwaters have been effective.
The reactor is housed in a watertight containment building, and is in a normal and safe “cold shutdown” condition, covered by more than 23 feet of purified reactor coolant water.
In addition, OPPD has installed Aqua Dams® and other berms around such vital equipment and buildings at the FCS site.
Rumor: Because of a fire at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station on June 7, the plant’s spent-fuel pool was in danger of boiling and releasing radioactivity.

There was no such imminent danger with the Fort Calhoun Station spent-fuel pool.
Due to a fire in an electrical switchgear room at FCS on the morning of June 7, the plant temporarily lost power to a pump that cools the spent-fuel pool.
The fire-suppression system in that switchgear room operated as designed, extinguishing the fire quickly.
FCS plant operators switched the spent-fuel pool cooling system to an installed backup pump about 90 minutes after the loss of power.
During the interruption of cooling, temperature of the pool increased a few degrees, but the pool was never in danger of boiling.
Due to this situation, FCS declared an Alert at about 9:40 a.m. on June 7.
An alert is the second-least-serious of four emergency classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
At about 1:15 p.m. on June 7, FCS operators declared they had taken all appropriate measures to safely return to the previously declared Notification of Unusual Event emergency classification. (See first item above.)

[Butterfly]

From AP newswire, 06/19/11

... In Nebraska, a flooding alert was issued for a second nuclear power plant ... Jud Kneuvean, chief of emergency management for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Kansas City District ... said that whenever a levee is being overtopped to the extent occurring in Atchison County, the most that can be hoped is that it will stay intact for 12 hours. After that, "all bets are off," he said.

[podfish]

from https://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online
US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report
A shocking report...

I don't think the Pakistan media understands how the news works here. It's not possible to "order a news blackout". If they really want to bury a news story, they'll just push a story of someone with a camera down his pants. The media takes care of the rest on its own.


by the way, here's a clip from that story. Sound like an impartial report to me:

Unknown to the American people about Obama’s “war” on the US coal industry is it’s estimated to cost them over a 60% increase in their electricity bills by 2014 and cause over 250,000 jobs to be lost in an already beleaguered economy

[leela8]

I don't think the Pakistan media understands how the news works here. It's not possible to "order a news blackout". If they really want to bury a news story, they'll just push a story of someone with a camera down his pants. The media takes care of the rest on its own.

I agree with you on both counts (source and media tactics). On the other hand, since about the 16th, there have been no new real news stories, just rehashings or repostings of the stories reported before then, with the exception of the offical "there's no news here" press release from the plant itself. Personally, that is what caught my attention, especially in combination with the extended no-fly zone.

[leela8]

Okay, I only just noticed that there is a page 2 to that article I posted about the "news blackout".

It does get quite nutty and conspiracy- minded as the article continues. I then did some deep web searching and there is evidence that it is indeed a hoax article that got circulated without source-checking.

Still, I find it odd that there has been very little news time dedicated to this situation in the last few days, since the water is below the plant by just one foot today, and water levels are predicted to rise a lot more.

Sorry I did not fact check either ("Obama Regime" might have been a big clue) and indeed posted in a moment of fear and dread, which I don't often, but occasionally do, succumb to.