Union of Concerned Scientists nuclear safety director, Dave Lochbaum, has pointed out that a "yellow finding" (the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's second highest category of safety violation) at Ft. Calhoun in 2010 has resulted in the plant being more prepared against flood risks than it otherwise would have been. The NRC described the Ft. Calhoun "yellow finding" as of "substantial importance to safety that may result in additional NRC inspection and potentially other NRC action. This Yellow finding involved the failure to maintain procedures for combating a significant flood...". NRC warned at the time that "At or before a water level of 1010-feet MSL [mean sea level], flood waters would enter the auxiliary building basement, shorting power and submerging pumps. The plant could  then experience a station blackout with core damage estimated within 15 to 18 hours without makeup to the steam generators." Omaha Public Power District tried to get NRC to lower the safety significance of the "yellow finding," but NRC refused -- for which Lochbaum expressed "kudos" to NRC for standing strong. In its report on the safety violation, NRC stated "This hesitance to consider other methods for hardening the facility against external floods during this period did not support crediting the organization with understanding the need for and developing a different strategy during a postulated flooding scenario. If your procedures were to be followed, it is not clear that attempts to further harden the facility would be made until water levels reached the point that the defenses were breached." NRC also concluded that OPPD's plans to obtain pumping equipment locally in the event of an emergency were likely to fail, given the pumps being in high demand and the short amount of time they would have. Also, NRC determined that OPPD's plans to use an on-site fire truck and crane to remove flood water from vital areas would likely fail. In the face of OPPD claims that it would figure out what to do as the need arose, NRC responded "we do not consider short-term planning in advance of an external initiator to be a valid input to a risk evaluation...". Incredibly, NRC documented that such lack of preparedness for floods have existed at Ft. Calhoun from 1978 to 2010 -- for 32 years!