Yet another long overdue atomic reactor permanent shutdown: Fort Calhoun, NE switched off for good today!

As reported by Cole Epley in the Omaha World-Herald, the Omaha Public Power District's (OPPD) Fort Calhoun atomic reactor permanently shutdown today, four and a half months after the nuclear utility's management proposed it, and the utility's board of directors voted in agreement.

Although OPPD emphasized Fort Calhoun's inability to compete with less expensive sources of electricity (including Nebraska's abundant wind power) as the reason for its decision, Fort Calhoun has also suffered serious safety problems for the past several years.

This included a close call with catastrophe, during historic floods on the adjacent Missouri River in the spring and summer of 2011. (This earned the atomic reactor the nickname "Port" Calhoun, as flood waters lapped against safety related systems, structures, and components! See the photo, above left.) It also included a fire, that smoldered within the plant for days, remarkably without response, also in 2011. The consequent two and half year shutdown cost Nebraskans several hundred million dollars (Fort Calhoun is publicly owned).

As soon as the irradiated fuel is removed from the core, Fort Calhoun can no longer suffer a reactor meltdown, by definition. In addition, no more high-level radioactive waste will be generated. That is the good news. The bad news is that the irradiated nuclear fuel already generated there, since 1974 -- currently stored in the indoor "wet" storage pool, and outdoor dry casks -- must be isolated from the living environment for the next million years.

Karl Grossman: “How Cuomo’s $7.6 Billion Nuclear Bail-out Can Impede Wind and Solar”

Karl GrossmanInvestigative journalist Karl Grossman (photo, left) -- a Beyond Nuclear board of directors member -- delivered a presentation to Long Island Metro Business Action entitled  “How Cuomo’s $7.6 Billion Nuclear Bail-out Can Impede Wind and Solar." A link to the written presentation is provided here.

Karl has also posted the presentation at his own blog, linked here.

Media coverage of the commemoration of 50 years since the Fermi 1 "We Almost Lost Detroit" partial meltdown/close call with radioactive catastrophe

“To the village square we must carry the facts of atomic energy. From there must come America’s voice.” --- Albert Einstein, June 1946. Photo credit: Mark Muhich, Sierra Club MI Chapter Nuclear-Free CommitteeA column in the LA Times, and an article in the Detroit Free Press, have covered this story. So too has the Monroe Evening News (note the one-minute video, of UCS's Dave Lochbaum explaining how a supposed meltdown mitigation safeguard at Fermi 1, actually led the meltdown); Michigan Public Radio's Stateside (an eight-minute interview with Fermi watchdog Michael Keegan); and the Toledo Blade.

Beyond Nuclear also raised the Fermi 1 meltdown on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" on Oct. 6th (see from 45 minutes 00 seconds to 52 minutes 20 seconds).

The speakers at the downtown Monroe, MI press conference held at 3:09 PM, Wed., Oct. 6th -- the 50-year mark, to the moment, of the Fermi 1 meltdown -- included (from left to right, see photo): Terry Lodge, Toledo Safe Energy Coalition, and environmental intervention attorney against Fermi 2 & Fermi 3; Jessie Collins, Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT); Michael Keegan, Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes and Don't Waste MI (speaking); Ethyl Rivera, Alliance to Halt Fermi 3; Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear; and David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists.

See Beyond Nuclear comprehensive post about the "We Almost Lost Detroit" meltdown 50-year commemoration, including a large number of links to additional information and documentation.