Though the plants have declared “unusual events,” the lowest level in the emergency taxonomy used by federal nuclear regulators, both were designed to withstand this level of flooding, and neither is viewed as being at risk for a disaster, said a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“We think they’ve taken all the necessary precautions and made the appropriate arrangements to deal with the flooding conditions,” said the spokesman, Victor Dricks.
One plant, the Fort Calhoun Station, about 19 miles north of Omaha, was shut down in April for refueling, and the operators elected to keep it in “cold shutdown” in anticipation of the flooding. The other plant, Cooper Nuclear Station, located downriver and situated on higher ground, is still operating.
Each of the 104 commercial nuclear power plants in the United States has a unique license issued by the federal government that details conditions under which it may operate, including what river water levels, wind speeds or hurricane surge levels require shutdowns. Reactors in Florida and Louisiana, for example, have shut down in anticipation of approaching hurricanes.
Despite the official assurances of safety, the unusual sight of a nuclear plant surrounded by water — coming so soon after the still unfolding nuclear disaster that followed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan — has prompted concern and speculation, leading one utility to add a feature to its Web site called “flood rumor control.” It says, “There has been no release of radioactivity and none is expected.”
The current flooding, which was caused by heavy rain and snow in parts of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, forcing record water releases from the dams normally used to prevent flooding, has pushed communities from Montana to Missouri to create barriers to hold back the river, which is expected to stay at these high levels for much of the summer.
Al Berndt, assistant director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, said he believed both plants were prepared to deal with the flooding. “I am not concerned,” he said.
Much of the attention has been focused on the Fort Calhoun plant because of recent concerns about its preparedness and the dramatic images of the structures surrounded in all direction by water, as if rising out of a lake. Earlier this month, the plant briefly lost power needed to cool the spent fuel pool after a fire that remains under investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/21flood.html?_r=1
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