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‘Event’ reported at Ft. Calhoun nuke plant: “Potential flooding issue in the Intake Structure” — “There is one penetration of concern” that could impact water pumps

Published: June 17th, 2011 at 11:56 am ET
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Event Number: 46965, Current Event Notification Report for June 17, 2011, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, June 17, 2011:

Facility: FORT CALHOUN
Notification Date: 06/16/2011
Notification Time: 14:46 [ET]
Event Date: 06/16/2011
Event Time: 12:30 [CDT]

Event Text: ADDITIONAL PENETRATION IDENTIFIED FOR MITIGATION DURING WALKDOWN

“Operations identified a potential flooding issue in the Intake Structure 1007 ft. 6 in. level. The area of concern is a the hole in the floor at the 1007 ft. 6 in. level where the relief valve from FP-1A discharge pipe goes through the raw pump bay and discharges into the intake cell. There is one penetration of concern. Flooding through this penetration could have impacted the ability of the station’s Raw Water (RW) pumps to perform their design accident mitigation functions.

“Efforts are in progress to seal the penetration.

“This eight-hour notification is being made pursuant to 10 CFR 50.72 (b)(3)(v).”

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

h/t Granny M

UPDATE: May 16 report foreshadowed yesterday’s “event” at Calhoun nuke plant: Flooding of Intake Structure could jeopardize abilty to cool reactor

Published: June 17th, 2011 at 11:56 am ET
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63 comments

Related Posts

  1. May 16 report foreshadowed yesterday’s “event” at Calhoun nuke plant: Flooding of Intake Structure could jeopardize abilty to cool reactor June 17, 2011
  2. Gundersen: Intake Structure that cools reactor and spent fuel pool is probably most vulnerable part of Ft. Calhoun nuke plan — Critical that it stays dry (VIDEO) June 28, 2011
  3. Many containers of fuel to power pumps were washed away after breach at Ft. Calhoun nuke plant June 27, 2011
  4. NRC Event at flooded Ft. Calhoun nuke plant: Both Fire Suppression Pumps are inoperable — Water levels too high for surveillance tests July 25, 2011
  5. NRC: Alert still in effect at NJ nuclear plant — High water levels in Oyster Creek’s water intake structure remain October 30, 2012
June 17th, 2011 | Tags: , , | Category: US
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63 comments to ‘Event’ reported at Ft. Calhoun nuke plant: “Potential flooding issue in the Intake Structure” — “There is one penetration of concern” that could impact water pumps

  • norbu norbu
    June 17, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    seal the penetration? how? hold back 1000s of tons of water? TIME to evacuate. trouble ahead. emergency crews will have to take the ferry to get there.


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  • CaliMom
    June 17, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    More knee-slapping fun from yet another nuclear reactor! There’s some bad karma going on on this planet of ours.


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  • norbu norbu
    June 17, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    we the people who care must stick together and help each other.


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  • Pu239 Pu239
    June 17, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    US reveals Stuxnet-style vuln in Chinese SCADA ‘ware

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/17/china_factory_hack/

    The US Department of Homeland Security is warning of holes in Chinese infrastructure software which could leave factories and power stations vulnerable to hack attacks.

    The problems, similar to those suffered by Siemens in Iran, are within Sunway ForceControl 6.1 and pNetPower Version 6 – used to runcontrol systems for factories, power plants and other utilities.

    The Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) Advisory warns that the hole could allow hackers to launch a denial of service attack or possible execution of arbitary code.

    The software is mainly used in China but claims some customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia and Africa. There have been no known exploits of the vulnerability and attackers would need an intermediate level of skill to use it.

    The problem was spotted by Dillon Beresford of NSS Labs.


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  • majia
    June 17, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    Almost every single Southern California and Arizona city tested in the EPA’s radnet survey today are “under review.”

    “Under review” has emerged as the code phrase for too high to report.

    I am very serious. If you live in these areas, stay inside if you can and run air filters.

    My guess is that the same radiation plume that was produced last week at the plant, and that triggered sensors in Hawaii, has made it these areas.


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  • Pu239 Pu239
    June 17, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    BECOME A FAILURE GURU
    (I imagine the job openings are increasing these days]

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-17/failure-guru-probes-nuclear-disaster-for-lessons-not-culprits.html

    Engineering professor Yotaro Hatamura has built a career on failure.

    The 70-year-old academic at the University of Tokyo founded the nonprofit Association for the Study of Failure in 2002, which has members including Tokyo Electric Power Co., the owner of the Fukushima plant at the center of the biggest nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
    Tokyo Electric is now the subject of Hatamura’s next study.

    He was appointed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan last month as head of the 10-member team to conduct an “impartial and multifaceted” investigation into what went wrong at the Fukushima nuclear plant and how to prevent a repeat.


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  • gonefission gonefission
    June 17, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    is this still considered a LEVEL 4 annoyance?


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  • Granny M
    June 17, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    http://www.wunderground.com Dr. Masters blog today: This week, the Army Corps of Engineers increased water flowing through all six dams to more than double the previous highs set during the floods of 1975 and 1997. The flow rates are now a massive 150,000 cubic feet per second, 1.5 times greater than the typical flow of Niagara Falls. These extreme flow rates will need to be maintained into at least mid-August, and are expected to severely strain levees on the Missouri River as it flows through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. According to a press conference put on by NWS and the Army Corps last week, the Missouri River flood control system is based on an 1881 estimate of the maximum amount of water an extreme flood season could generate–40 million acre-feet of water during the spring and summer flood season. However, this year’s flood is expected to pump 42 – 43 million acre feet of water into the system, stressing it beyond its designed limits. In May alone, the Missouri River basin just upstream from Sioux City, Iowa, received 10.2 million acre feet of water, more than 25% above the previous May record of 7.2 million acre feet set in 1995. Additional levee failures along the Missouri are likely this summer, particularly if widespread heavy summer rains occur.


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  • Pu239 Pu239
    June 17, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    PICTURES OF PLANNED POLYESTER REACTOR COVER

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003901/Fukushima-entombed-Nuclear-firm-reveal-plans-covering-shield-reactor-stop-leaks.html

    Those not interested in the immanent demise of human civilization may look at the right side of the page.

    E.g. Britney is looking a little “paunchy” on the first leg of her Femme Fatale Tour.


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  • Granny M
    June 17, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    Reading the NRC Event Reports of late, it is most often some small component that fails, equipment that arrives inoperable and minor mistakes such a wiring done wrong that put the plant (or medical devices) in danger. …for want of a nail…
    Every little thing could have such massive consequences.


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    • Savvy
      June 17, 2011 at 3:08 pm

      Australia is the only continent on Earth that has (at the moment) got no nuclear power stations, though we do have an experimental reactor in Sydney at Lucas Heights (visited there for science class as a kid – probably got my yearly rad dose that day!).

      Maybe due to Australia not conforming to the will of the global nuclear mafia (by choosing to use their lethal technology) “they” have decided they want to put the worst stuff – the waste – in the “empty continent” as “punishment”?! Possible, but who knows.

      In any case, Australia needs a massive popular movement to completely shut down all the uranium mining there, given that it is a significant provider (35% if remembering correctly) of global uranium. To remove such a large amount of the “drug” (for pro-nuclear psychos) of uranium would be a real blow to the global nuclear industry altogether.

      COME ON AUSSIES! Get hip and protest en masse until the uranium exports are banned forever! And certainly protest loudly (and until the idea is permanently dropped) if the global nuclear mafia really does try to send their poisonous waste down under.


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  • jump-ball
    June 17, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    Below is a very graphic as well as scary way to see the forecasted increases in Missouri River flood levels that FORT CALHOUN and COOPER-BROWNVILLE nuclear reactor operators may have to withstand over what appears to be a 5 day hydrologic forecast.

    Two days ago COOPER nuclear said it will shut down if flood levels rise 6 more feet, and here are 3 of those 6 feet arriving by next Tuesday according to the hydrologic prediction:

    http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=oax&gage=bron1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1”

    Haven’t found anything on whether, if one of the 6 Missouri River dams were to break, COOPER’s elevated fuel pool would be better off than CALHOUN’s in-the-ground pool, or not, but then that would be a flyover country ELE either way.

    Sioux City observed flood level is up one foot in the last 24-48 hours, showing how rapidly the sandbags around FORT CALHOUN and COOPER-BROWNVILLE nuclear reactors can be challenged:

    http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=fsd&gage=sscn1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1”

    The Bullsheedium reading in the Fuku news is making me ill, so I’m focusing on the well-publicized, uncensored and low-drama/intrigue reports on local Missouri River cities flood conditions affecting CALHOUN and COOPER nuclear, from the network affiliate TV stations such as KMTV and KETV Omaha:

    http://www.ketv.com/missouri-river-flooding-extended-coverage/28181060/video.html

    Cheers.


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    • CaliMom
      June 17, 2011 at 5:33 pm

      How ’bout this one: Extinctionothane.

      Or, Retardium.

      Used in a sentence, ‘When Retardium is fusioned with Lyingsackoshitium, the resulting isotope is Extinctionothane.


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      • jump-ball
        June 17, 2011 at 7:46 pm

        Yes, endless words of comic relief, for a world coming to a tragic end.

        My sensors just today are detecting increasing levels of Radnausium, Forktongium, Doublespeakium, Technobabbleinium and Miscalcularium.

        But I’m sure more are coming into detection range soon.


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  • Mark
    June 17, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Re Pu239′s post (thx) more examples of Orwellian double speak, quoting from article, “Tokyo’s local government has also launched a large-scale radiation survey, sending officials out to parks, school playgrounds and other locations to reassure parents over the aftermath of leaks at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.” Something lost in the translation? Radiation survey doesn’t that mean checking for radiation? Not reassuring public not to worry. So sad that Japan is an example of US sponsored democratic freedom just like they used spent uranium ammo to “free” Iraq, Afghanistan and others. Friends, know thy enemy!


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    • sorry charlie
      June 17, 2011 at 6:23 pm

      I have a picture in my mind of that reassuring conversation…. man in white paper jump suit and oyxgen mask approaches worried parents in a park to let them know, ” You may not have heard this on the news so I’m here to tell you that there has been three melt downs at the nuclear plant nearby. You may have been made aware of the 2 or 3 nuclear explosions as well, well, the core is on the floor…but the good news is you folks are safe, now I have to move along, the rads are high…but they can’t hurt you happy folks…cheers!


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  • SteveMT
    June 17, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Experienced divers are in very high demand these days. Every nuclear plant has intake ports that must be kept clear of debris. The floods have stirred the pot with silk, sand, tree branches, and garbage that can all block these ports.
    This problem sounds like an internal structural design flaw/point of weakness.


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  • BetaFlare
    June 17, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    Appr 40 years x 100 tons = 4000 tons of higly radioactive waste – in pools under water without cooling?

    Is the big building upstream from reactor the waste pool building? No dikes around, totally surrounded by water…
    http://preparator.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/nebraska-omaha-pwr-station2-s.jpg?w=668&h=396

    That death machine started in 1973… Just a question of days to the Arnies fucuraska xplosion soundless analysis?

    Disastrous repost http://wp.me/pwIAV-19


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    • BetaFlare
      June 17, 2011 at 3:08 pm

      If the dam gives out: there are total of seven nuclear plants downstream along the Missisippi fucutsunami…


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      • Pu239 Pu239
        June 17, 2011 at 3:14 pm

        I think if you tried really hard to kill a planet, you could not do better than these guys.


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        • BetaFlare
          June 17, 2011 at 3:24 pm

          Yes, welldone hoodster club of r0me, 90% depop seems to be on track… I guess EU rad machines will be next.

          Can anybody verify the Ft Calhoun buildings? They have hidden all info quite thoroughly.


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          • Granny M
            June 17, 2011 at 4:20 pm

            http://www.EUtimes.com reporting that US has ordered media blackout of Ft. Calhoun. Next week in D.C. (June 21-23) is Nuclear Energy Summit 2011 – BIG industry confab – they gonna have a lot of ugly stuff to put spin on!
            (I have copied article in case it disappears)


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      • xdrfox
        June 17, 2011 at 3:28 pm

        Right now, They do not know to sht or go blind, everyone of them is biting their lips and wrenching their hands in worry and hopping the all hold !


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        • xdrfox
          June 17, 2011 at 5:51 pm

          Ever see domino’s fall, it would be one hell of a wall of water coming downstrean hiting each one with more and more power with each on that may break !
          Water is a mighty force, look at the video’s of wall of water in Japan again !

          I am really hopping these dams hold, so I will be here and can demand we build new ones starting as soon as the water goes down ! And a Sigh of big relief !


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      • jump-ball
        June 17, 2011 at 9:04 pm

        Well there are seven nuclear locations from sandbagged FORT CALHOUN NE on down to the southernmost WATERFORD UNIT 3-TAFT LA, but the ‘Arkasas Nuclear One’ plant has 2 units, so call it eight total plants in seven places.

        Their locations and ‘safety issues’ can be seen below, and the 8 plants have the usual checkered history of groundwater leaks, blocked containment pump cooling problems and ‘heightened NRC attention’, although none of the 8 show the 5th safety issue of ‘year plus outages’.

        Only 2 of the 8 plants, COOPER-BROWNVILLE and GRAND GULF UNIT 1 have elevated spent fuel storage, the safety issue of which, surprisingly, IMHO, is not a possible operating problem resulting from earthquakes or other building or structural failure problems, but because “…the storage…is above ground, instead of in a deep pit, making it more vulnerable to terrorist attack.”

        After reading that, I was astounded to realize that the 9/11 air hijackers had had another choice, to ignite 4 of the many elevated U.S. fuel storage pools across the U.S., into dirty bombs, killing 100s of 1000s of people over decades, but chose instead to destroy office and government buildings involving far fewer people.

        http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/reactor-map/embedded-flash-map.html


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        • BetaFlare
          June 18, 2011 at 4:03 am

          Missisippi 8 x40years x100tons = only 320.000waste tons – surely this is maximum?

          Into the HAARP-Katrina GOM?

          With the hideously detonated oil rig platform hoax and tankers unloading of mass murder poisons, death, destruction and harrasment?

          320.000 tons of radioactive waste dumped into there? Oh how Adolph would be envious…

          If it was me, you could see earth moving equipment working on a new dam, stopping, dismantling of all theses doubledecker G.E beach bombs.

          If it is obummer and his controllers with MSM popeye program, you will soon have hands on blister experience of the “change” – apocalypse now.


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  • itstomd
    June 17, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    this will be fixed, hey at least they found this now, and addressing this now. But this plant was not designed for this type of flood.


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  • TraderGreg
    June 17, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    We need new terms: ‘Fukushima Lie’, ‘Fukushima Liar’, for the purpose of future criminal/civil prosecutions.

    We need to identify all politicians in USA/Canada that promote the nuclear energy, lie about the impact of it, and make it a strong political issue. That’s how they did it in Germany. The lemmings that promoted the nuclear industry did not get any votes in recent elections.

    We need to start penalizing these a*holes, otherwise nothing will change. It has absolutely nothing with the political orientation, nothing to do with Dem/Rep, Liberal/Conservative splits, it is all about our future, health and survival.


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