While attention has been focused on the flood in Minot, there's another one in Nebraska that's just a bit scarier. Two lines of defenses protecting the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station from the flooding Missouri River both failed on Sunday. Though it's been shut down, the plant site is under two feet of water, according to news accounts. The Omaha World Herald has extensive coverage.
Officials for the Omaha Public Power District said that a piece of heavy equipment operating on the plant side of the dam separating the plant from the river ruptured the wall. Then water leaked through a cement barrier designed to protect the main transformer.
That prompted officials to disconnect the plant from the electrical grid Sunday morning. The plant has been shut down for re-fueling since April, and both plant and federal nuclear regulators say it's safe.
But ultimately, it depends on how high the water rises.
Water would have to rise to 1,038.5 feet l to reach the spent fuel pool, which holds the plants most recently used uranium fuel. Officials say, however, that If floodwater made it to the reactor, it couldn't get inside. That's because the reactor is itself a watertight vessel that holds nuclear fuel in its own deep pool of water, they said.
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