Image of the Day: Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant surrounded by floodwaters
By Nancy Gaarder, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
17 June 2011 FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — Despite the stunning sight of the Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor surrounded by water and the weeks of flooding that lie ahead, the plant is in a safe cold shutdown and can remain so indefinitely, the reactor’s owners and federal regulators say. “We think they’ve taken adequate steps to protect the plant and to assure continued safety,” Victor Dricks, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Thursday. Tim Burke, vice president at Omaha Public Power District, said the plant’s flood barriers are being built to a level that will protect against rain and the release of record amounts of water from upstream dams on the Missouri River. “We don’t see any concerns around the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station,” Burke said at a briefing in Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle’s office. The nuclear plant, 20 miles north of Omaha, was shut down April 9 for refueling. It has not been restarted because of the imminent flooding. […]
The rule is that one should always try to fail gracefully.
I am not sure they do when I read:
">Installing an approximately 8-foot-tall, 16-foot-wide water-filled tubular rubber dam. The dam encircles the reactor building, like a black snake, and holds the floodwaters at bay."
This reactor is in cold shut down with the fuel removed, but where is the fuel???
Reactor 4 at Fukushima was in cold shutdown with its fuel "removed" as well. "Removed" meant being put in a storage tank in the reactor building and being cooled by continuous flowing water. However the building has been severely damaged and the cooling water cut off. It may potentially be the most dangerous situation of the 4 reactors because its fuel is outside the safety of the reactor vessel. Still no worries????? Is this plant still getting outside electrical power to maintain the cooling system?