Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nebraska Nuclear Plant Flood Defenses Tested

Posted by Soulskill on from the good-walls-make-bad-mutant-wildlife dept.

mdsolar tips an article at the NY Times which begins: "Pictures of the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant north of Omaha, Neb., 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. 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. Additional concrete barriers and permanent berms, more sandbags and another power line into the plant have been added. The plant was shut down in April for refueling and will remain so until the flood threat is passed. 'Today the plant is well positioned to ride out the current extreme Missouri River flooding while keeping the public safe,' Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks said on an agency blog this week. But 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 in a yearlong inspection and enforcement action against the plant's operator, the Omaha Public Power District."

3 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Feet above sea level? by Pope · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's a bit of a bizarre measurement for river waters, no? Makes it sound at first glance that it's under 1,007 feet of water. Why not the height above the normal crest? It would make it a bit easier to visualize that's for sure.

    --
    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  2. Re:Yay! by Mr+Bubble · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would just like to point out that 7 feet of flooding is A LOT

    But that is the forecast - 5-7 feet rise this summer.

    Besides, TFA says that the original state of the plant was only good for 1008 above sea level - it is now at 1007 and rising - that is the thrust of the article. They were not prepared and may still not be.

    --
    "The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
  3. Re:Shoddy Japanese work... by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, actually they didn't ... Until the goverment started fining the ever living shit out of them about a year ago ... Had this happened last summer, the plants barriers would already be underwater and it's still rising.

    I'm not anti nuke, I'm pro actually, but had they not have been spanked hard over the last year, they'd be in trouble.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager