Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant vs Missouri River: Everything's Fine... (Not.)

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant vs Missouri River...

Fort Calhoun had been using 8ft., inflatable "aqua-dams" in an attempt to prevent the rising floodwater from the Missouri River from repeating a series of events similar to those which recently led to Japan's significant and ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima (the tsunami knocked out the power; stopping the flow of massive amounts of water necessary to keep everything cool; leading to cores/rods overheating; leading to nuclear melt-downs/throughs.).

At Fort Calhoun on Sunday, crews working near the aqua-dams "brushed against one" and punctured it, which caused the one dam to collapse. The collapse of the dam allowed floodwater to reach Fort Calhoun's turbines & transformers (keeps water flowing/cools everything).

Official Statement: "Everything's fine. The aqua-dams weren't key to safety, they were an extra."

Oh, really?

If that's True...

Then how is that - with the collapse of that one aqua-dam - 2ft of the Missouri River managed to get through the cement barrier placed around the transformers? The very cement barrier that's not "extra" and is in place specifically to keep floodwater away from the plant's transformers? This breach then forced Fort Calhoun to disconnect from the power grid... which meant they had to switch to diesel-powered generators (Is this sounding familiar, yet?)?

Fukushima lost power. Then lost their generators. During the disaster, plant officials behaved very much like British Petroleum officials after the oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst (if not the worst) oil spills on record: The officials played down how serious the events were and what had resulted; they intentionally provided false figures/information about what was happening to those who were trying to help; they lied, repeatedly; they denied, repeatedly; they turned down/away help.

The end result in Fukushima: 3 Nuclear Melt-downs (and, possibly, Melt-throughs).

The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant is now Two Feet below the current level of the Missouri River.

And, the consistent statement made by Fort Calhoun officials: "Don't worry everything's fine."

Yeah, right. (Initially, Fukushima officials had said pretty much the same thing.)

(From last night's TRMS)

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Peace,
L.

Business Insider: Second Nebraska Nuclear Plant Threatened By Flooding

Have YOU heard about the 2 nuclear plants in Nebraska threatened by floodwater?

If not, you're not alone.

Even before it was acknowledged that the second nuclear plant was being threatened, the threat to the first plant seems to have been rather - I dunno - methinks hush-hush is quite apropos.

As you probably recall, the Fukushima nuclear disaster involving three nuclear reactors and at least 2 - if not - 3 nuclear melt-downs (no, I'm not kidding.) resulted not from the earthquake, but from the floodwater and its effects.

But... fear not, good people!  At least that's what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is saying (though not in those exact words).

"Officials say a key difference between the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan..." and the threats to Nebraska plants is that the NE plants "... have had weeks to prepare flood defenses." *

* They've "... had weeks to prepare", huh?

Well, that's all well and good... but, honestly, just because someone has had weeks to do anything - that doesn't mean they actually did it/did enough, now does it?

From: businessinsider.com:
Second Nebraska Nuclear Plant Threatened By Flooding