Even nuclear plants are not immune from natural disasters. As the world watched in horror the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, the Fukushima nuclear power plant leaked deadly amounts of radiation, creating the worse nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.  

Inland Tsunami

The Midwest has been hit by record breaking, wide spread flooding this year. As the Missouri river overflows her banks heading south, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant, located 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska, has been overcome by floodwaters as the berm holding them back collapsed early Sunday morning (June 26). 

We are assured the plant is safe

The commission assures us that there is no danger since the plant has been shut down since early April for refueling. The Missouri River is not expected to rise above the flood lever that was designed for the plant.  But, the media has blacked the story out? [2]

The river is still rising...

Inspectors, who were at the plant when the berm failed, confirmed that the flooding has had no impact on the reactor shutdown cooling or the spent fuel pool cooling and claims the plant remains safe.

Plant is on backup diesel generator

Then construction equipment damaged a internal berm flooding transformers requiring the plant to be disconnected from the grid.  The plant is on backup diesel generator running cooling equipment.  This is the same scenario as Fukushima having survived the earth quake only to have the back up diesel generator fail after a few hours.  

Fort Calhoun plant like two of the Fukushima reactors were "Shut Down" for refueling.  This can be misleading as tons of fuel remains hot for weeks and months requiring continuous cooling.  Extended loss of cooling can exposed fuel rods allowing temperatures to reach thousands of degrees releasing a family of radioactive isotopes. Explosive hydrogen gas is generated by adding water to hot fuel rods made with Zeroiloy.   

In the case of Fukushima minimal damage was done by the record earthquake but, the tsunami damaged the backup diesel generator fuel tanks.  The resulting lost of cooling triggered the series of events that resulted in 3 explosions releasing huge amounts of radiation.  It appears plant operators in Nebraska have things under control for now.

FAA reissues No-Fly Zone over crippled plant

  On June 6th, the Federal Administration Aviation (FAA) reissued a directive banning aircraft from entering the airspace within a two-mile radius of the plant.  FAA issued a No-Fly zone over Fort Calhoun Nuclear facility is still effect as of 26 June. [2]

Second Plant to South is Operational

The Cooper Nuclear Station, which is located about 80 miles south of Omaha, remains operating at full power. An “unusual event declaration” was issued for the nuclear plant on Sunday, as water levels from the Missouri rose. However, the current level is two feet below the plant's elevation. If the situation becomes critical, more inspectors will be sent to the site.

US News media has Blacked out News

The fire occurred on June 7th, and knocked out cooling for approximately 90 minutes. After 88 hours, the cooling pool would boil dry and highly radioactive materials would be exposed.  US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report June 18, 2011  [3] 

A fire in Nebraska's Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant briefly knocked out the cooling process for spent nuclear fuel rods, ProPublica reports.

We will continue to monitor events

We are disappointed that the major media did not cover this story.   It appears that things are under control for the moment. 

Related Links:

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/faa-closes-airspace-over-flooded-nebraska-nuclear-power-plant-2011-6

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_1_6523.html

[3] “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.

 http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/18-Jun-2011/US-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-Nebraska-Nuclear-Plant-report