NRC keeps flooded Ft. Calhoun on close-watch list

The Wall Street Journal reports that due to past violations involving flood protections and automatic shutdown systems, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will keep Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska on a close-watch list. Most of the plant is under two feet of flood waters on the historically flooded Missouri River. There is currently about a ten foot safety margin between the flood waters and what the nuclear power plant is prepared to withstand -- but only because NRC busted them for their inadequate preparations late last year. "They are receiving heightened oversight because of inadequate procedures to protect their intake structure and auxiliary building from a flood...and other past performance issues," NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said.

Update on July 24, 2011 by admin

The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) has re-installed the 2,000 foot long, 8 foot tall water-filled rubber berm called the "AquaDam" around vital areas of the Ft. Calhoun nuclear power plant. It collapsed on June 26th when a worker accidentally nicked it with a Bobcat bulldozer, causing two feet of flood waters to lap at the walls of the reactor containment and auxiliary buildings, which house safety-signficant systems, structures and components.

10 of the oldest U.S. reactors show weakness to earthquake and fire risks

4 of the 10 oldest U.S. reactors are located on the Great Lakes shore (as are Canada's 4 oldest reactors)In a photo essay focused on the ten oldest operating atomic reactors in the United States, National Geographic reports on findings by Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors revealing weaknesses to seismic and fire risks post-Fukushima. Not mentioned is the fact that four of the ten oldest reactors -- Nine Mile Point Unit 1, NY; R.E. Ginna, NY; Point Beach Unit 1, WI; and Palisades, MI -- are located on the shoreline of the Great Lakes, 20% of the world's surface fresh water, drinking water supply for 40 million people downstream in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American First Nations. Four more of the ten oldest U.S. reactors -- Dresden Units 2 and 3, IL; Monticello, MN; and Quad Cities Unit 1, IL -- are located just outside, or not very far from, the Great Lakes watershed, in terms of the potential for airborne fallout from a catastrophic radioactivity release, as clearly shown by the widespread contamination downwind and downstream of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. (Not mentioned in the article is the fact that four of Canada's oldest reactors -- four units at Pickering A nuclear power plant just east of Toronto -- also are located on Lake Ontario's shore.) All 10 atomic reactors mentioned in the National Geographic article have already had 20 year license extensions rubberstamped by the NRC.

MARKEY TO NRC COMMISSIONERS SVINICKI AND MAGWOOD: STOP ABDICATING RESPONSIBILITY

U.S. Rep. Markey (D-MA)In a media release, U.S. Rep. Markey (pictured left) stated:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 20, 2011) – Today, Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee and a senior Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, released the following statement in response to the votes of NRC Commissioners Kristine L. Svinicki and William D. Magwood to delay even the consideration of the adoption of the recommendations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) Near Term Task Force reviewing NRC processes and regulations in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns.
 
“Commissioners Svinicki and Magwood have rejected the Chairman’s call to vote on the Fukushima task force’s recommendations within 90 days,” said Rep. Markey. “Instead, they want to direct the NRC staff to endlessly study the NRC staff’s own report before they will even consider a single recommendation made by the very same NRC staff.  We do not need another study to study the NRC staff’s study. This is an unacceptable abdication of responsibility, and I call on these two Commissioners to do their jobs and quickly move to order the adoption of the recommendations of the Fukushima task force.”
 
Commissioner Svinicki’s vote can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-kls.pdf
 
Commissioner Magwood’s vote can be fount at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-wdm.pdf
 
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NRC: Novel Regulatory Clarity

''If a Secretary of Agriculture endorsed better meat inspection, you wouldn't have a debate of near religious fervor about whether that person was pro- or anti-meat, whether he had sold out to the vegetarians.

You'd debate whether the stricter regulations made sense. It's somehow unique to nuclear power that, when one refuses to have nuclear power on the industry's terms, one gets chucked into a bin labeled 'anti-nuclear.' ''

-Peter A. Bradford (pictured above), former Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (who served during the Three Mile Island meltdown), 3/9/82. Bradford now teaches at Vermont Law School, serves on the board of directors of Union of Concerned Scientists, and is outspoken against the risks of nuclear power subsidies to taxpayers and ratepayers, as well as the risks of rollbacks to nuclear safety regulations.

Lochbaum lauds NRC for standing strong against Ft. Calhoun flooding risks

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!