Flood waters may be undermining structures at Ft. Calhoun

In a blog entitled "A Long Road Ahead for a Flooded Reactor," Matt Wald of the New York Times reports that even if the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant rides out the current historic flooding of the Missouri River -- as Omaha Public Power District and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials assure it will -- it will still take a long time after the waters recede to restart the reactor. Wald writes "The plant faces... other challenges, however. One is that the flowing water, four feet deep in some spots around the plant, may have undermined some structures. Already, plant workers have stopped moving heavy vehicles over paved surfaces because they may have been weakened, the managers say."