Berm Fails, Nebraska Nuclear Station Threatened
How far is the cabal willing to take matters? The galactics will, I’m sure, prevent the worst aspects of this disaster, but some of it they cannot interfere with. To call it “Project Flood 2011″ must be an ironic slip. Indeed it’s exactly that. Thanks to Roth.
Nuclear flood threat: 1100 troops, 25,000 homes flooded, NRC chief onsite
Deborah Dupre, Human Rights Examiner, June 25, 2011 4:28 pm ET
http://tinyurl.com/66jfqn2
Emergency Update: At approximately 1:00am Sunday, June 26, the aqua-berm quickly constructed around Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station broke and electricity had to be cut. The plant is now reportedly running on emergency generators as workers try to restore electricity after water surrounded main electrical transformers. The auxiliary building at Ft. Calhoun was surrounded by water after the berm failure. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission letter said if water enters the auxiliary building, there could have been a station blackout with core damage in hours.
Project Flood 2011 intensifies
Upstream of two nuclear power plants operating at heightened alert, flooding of biblical proportions has resulted in as many as 4,500 families to lose their homes in North Dakota, 25,000 homes filling with water, patrol boats responding to 911 calls, and 1100 activated National Guardsmen onsite to help. An Air Force base, overseeing 150 Minuteman III missiles in underground launch silos over 8,500 square miles, is partially under water according to CBS News on Saturday. Downstream are Nebraska’s two atomic plants causing national and international dismay plus reason for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief to arrive on the scene today.
Some compare one of the two U.S. nuclear power plants threatened by floodwaters to Fukushima, not only due to the floodwater. Both Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and Fukushima are storehouses for years of spent nuclear fuel rods, a danger highlighted by some news sources, the International International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and other watchdog groups.“Floodwaters are breaching levees, triggering evacuations, closing highways, swamping thousands of acres of farmland, destroying homes and lapping against hurriedly reinforced floodwalls protecting cities, airports and power plants, including two in Nebraska that produce nuclear power,” reported World Herald staff reporter David Hendee today.
“Imagine roughly 55 million acres — the entire surface of Nebraska and southwest Iowa — covered in a foot of water. Now imagine trying to funnel all that water down a drainage canal surrounded by airports and homes, businesses and farms. You can begin to grasp the unprecedented, slow-developing danger facing folks from Montana to Missouri from the Great Flood of 2011.” (World Herald)
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said Saturday that the Souris River, upriver of the nuclear power plants, is flowing over most levees of the city of Minot, surging past a 130-year-old record level. Col. S.L. Davis, commander of the 91st Missile Wing, reports “localized flooding” at a handful of missiles site. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched four boats to patrol flooded neighborhoods and respond to 911 calls. (CBS)
The Souris River soared nearly 4 feet in less than 24 hours, overwhelming the city of Minot’s levees where an estimated 4,500 homes are expected to be severely damaged by the time the river peaks today according to Associated Press.
Over 10,000 people evacuated earlier in the week, packing what they hoped to save into cars, trucks and trailers. Water came up through a storm sewer, eroding one downtown levee before it was controlled and Army Corps of Engineers Lt. Col. Kendall Bergmann said levees protecting the key northern approach to Broadway Bridge was touch and go.
Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk, North Dakota adjutant general said, “A big part of what we are doing is securing evacuated areas to ensure that property is protected while people need to leave the area for safety reasons. Our Guardsmen comprise a versatile force that is able to assist flood-affected communities in a number of ways.”
“It‟s really sad to see what people here are going through. I‟m glad to help in any way I can,” said Sgt. Ross Teigen. “I‟ve volunteered to be here as long as they need me.”
President Obama’s emergency declaration enabled FEMA and the American Red Cross to begin establishing “transitional housing centers.” This week, however, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War doctors harshly criticized government and industry for not being more forthcoming with warnings that radiation from Nebraska’s nuclear plants is a reality.
“It’s always the same phenomenon that industry and government do everything it can to hide and downplay such incidents,” said nuclear expert in IPPNW Henrik Paulitz. “States and nuclear industries are too much into each other, so that reason alone… does not guarantee a sufficient degree.
“The fact that nuclear power plants worldwide are threatened by high water levels of rivers at any time, occupied the uncontrollability of this technique. How many accidents and near accidents have you actually need to finally draw the necessary consequences?” Paulitz asked this week.
Government’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Gregory Jaczko arrived in Nebraska today to “observe Missouri River flooding and the flooding preparation” at both plants, Cooper on Sunday and Fort Calhoun Monday according to Daily Reporter.
Nuclear plants at risk
The flooding in the nuclear facility sites’ areas is expected to remain problematic throughout the summer. AP reported Thursday that the Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing dam water upstream of the nuclear stations after heavy rain and snow melt. “Water releases at the Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota hit 160,000 cubic feet of water per second Thursday, and the corps plans to continue releasing water at that rate until at least August.” (AP)
Several areas downriver had some temporary relief Friday. In southeastern Nebraska, near Cooper Nuclear Plant, the Missouri River dropped more than a foot, but waters continue rising this weekend according to the National Weather Service.
Sandbagging, including by prisoners in some areas, has been the main flood damage prevention upstream of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station and a makeshift berm has been quickly constructed at the plant. Critics question these methods of protecting millions of American babies and thousands of acres of America’s prime bread basket from nuclear catastrophe, while the government spends billions of dollars to spy on Americans and billions more on private contractors to “make us safe.”
Friday’s New York Times report on U.S. nuclear plants, coupled with other recent reports, such as one revealing 2/3s of U.S. nuclear plants have leaked radiation, have resulted in lack of confidence in the nuclear industry and fear of the two nuclear facilities are downstream of the “biblical proportion flooding.”
Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station is operated by OPPD that neglected to head official warning and failed to pass flood risk prevention well enough for the NRC, according to The New York Times. Pumps in an emergency water makeup system at Fort Calhoun plant failed repeatedly over several years and “the plant owner never identified the true cause of those failures, and therefore, did not take the right steps to prevent their recurrence” reported Union of Concerned Scientists that name Fort Calhoun plant among 14 of the nation’s 104 nuclear plants. (See “THE NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety 2010″)
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