Thursday, June 16, 2011

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station, run by Omaha Power District, surrounded by flood waters, rise of 5 more feet expected.

Sorry about the formatting. I can't get the video to embed, so here it the link, you won't believe this, the flood is up to the buildings of the nuclear power plant and waters are expected to rise by 5 more feet, and it sure doesn't look like they are anywhere near ready for that:  http://www.action3news.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=5930032


Plant shut down April 9th for maintenance and remains closed.  Waters expected to rise another 5 feet.




WOWT, June 13: Nuclear plant “almost like a castle surrounded by a moat”
Journal Star, June 14: “Farther south, near Fort Calhoun, farmland and the nuclear power plant are surrounded by floodwaters, [Governor] Heineman said.”


This shows the video taken from a small plane of the flooding:
http://www.action3news.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=5930032



Scott Olson, a farmer and farm equipment auctioneer from Tekamah, Nebraska ,gave our Channel 6 camera a view from high above the massive flooding with a ride-along on his plane.
Olson and his brother Randy own 3000 acres of farm land and almost 500 acres is now flooded by the Missouri River. Earlier this week he was fertilizing another field that may eventually be under water as well. Olson said, "you have no choice to work the land because the extent of the flooding is unknown."

According to Olson, the Nebraska Resource District told area landowners that the dikes in areas of Washington County "were designed to withstand two, maybe three weeks of water, maybe a month."


Thousands of acres of farmland are already flooded and Olson said, "we need the Corps to do more, they need to tell us what to do and tell us where to go." He added, "this is not mother nature, this is man made."


Olson said, "we're talking three to four months of water at that height, how can those levees last, how can they hold?"


Olson estimates that it may take "seven to ten years" for the flooded farmland to return to the rich productive soil that existed before the current catastrophe.


During the plane ride our camera also recorded many expensive homes along the river that are underwater.


The Omaha Casino is flooded and the Nuclear Power Plant in Fort Calhoun is surrounded by water, although the levees protecting the facility are holding.


The Army Corps of Engineers did issue a revised projection for the crest of the flood in Blair, Nebraska. The new crest level is two feet higher than the previous projection.

See troubling video from June 6 at Action 3 News

Related Posts

  1. Inland Tsunami? Dam breaking could inundate nuke plant near Omaha — Equivalent of Fukushima’s tsunami (AUDIO) June 10, 2011
  2. JUST IN: ‘Notification of Unusual Event’ declared at nuclear plant near Omaha — “They don’t expect any radioactive material to be released” June 7, 2011
  3. Fire knocks out spent fuel cooling at nuclear plant near Omaha — Operating under heightened alert level because of nearby flooding on Missouri River June 10, 2011
  4. No-fly zone remains over troubled nuclear plant near Omaha — “In effect for flood relief efforts” June 14, 2011
  5. ANOTHER NUKE PLANT: Fukushima Daini has 3,000 tons of radioactive water in reactor buildings June 7, 2011

Can Omaha levees hold? Dykes designed for a few weeks of water — 3-4 months expected, with 5+ foot rise

  • SteveMT
    June 14, 2011 at 8:12 pm 
    Unlike Fukushima, at least this water is fresh.
  • Anthony
    June 14, 2011 at 8:21 pm 
    Have there been any details about how vulnerable this is to maintain its cooling anywhere? This is not looking good at all.
    • jump-ball
      June 14, 2011 at 9:17 pm 
      I’ve been reading Omaha TV news since last Friday’s broadcast of a close-up, boatride video of the sandbagged FORT CALHOUN nuclear site, almost surrounded by water and looking like a U.S. version of potential Fuku-type cooling system disaster hiding in plain sight.
      In general and in brief:
      * The Missouri River flood level has been rising at 8-10 inches/day, and is predicted to rise 4-6 more feet by next Saturday.
      * Omaha’s Eppley Field airport is being sandbagged and runways are predicted to be 10 feet below next Saturday’s flood level. Not sure how arriving passengers are transported out over the levee to the nearest available roads or transportation.
      * Volunteer sandbaggers for various areas are being recruited, required to be at least 19 years old and bring and wear specified equipment and clothes.
      * Several already-sandbagged facilities are reporting water now coming UP through the ground; after you hold the water back, you next have to keep the water down.
      * The FORT CALHOUN spent fuel pool is in the ground, but being in the ground UNDER the Missouri River is not all good and wasn’t in the Combustion Engineering/Westinghouse design and operating plans.
      * Isolated rain and thunderstorms from last Sunday to next Saturday are adding to the already-rising Missouri River flood level.
      * 2 broken levees northwest of Hamburg IA near the Iowa-Nebraska border, and the Army Corps and local consideration of intentionally breaking additional levees, are signs of the weakness of the levees and the measures needed to prevent further increases in the predicted flood level.
      I’ve thought for 4 days that the FORT CALHOUN cooling system risk is above-the-fold headline material that will be impossible to black-out at the Omaha level and very difficult to suppress in national print and broadcast media.
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1 comment:

  1. WitsendJune 16, 2011 at 3:16 PM

    Another video:

    http://thecomingcrisis.blogspot.com/2011/06/nebraska-nuclear-plant-emergency-level.html

    What I wonder about is all the nuclear plants and sea level rise, not to mention fiercer hurricanes along the coast

    ReplyDelete