Nuclear Plant’s Vital Equipment Dry, Officials Say

[IScreamSundays]

Source: NYTimes

FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — When safety regulators arrive for a tour of a nuclear plant, the operators usually give the visitors a helmet, safety glasses and earplugs. When Gregory B. Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, got to the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday morning, the Omaha Public Power District offered him a life jacket.

Technically, what the plant is undergoing is not a flood but a “water event,” as the regulatory commission classifies it. But Fort Calhoun has clearly been outflanked by the Missouri River, first at its front door and now at its back door as well. The only access route to the plant is over a sinuous path of catwalks built over the submerged parking lot and walkways in recent weeks.

Vital equipment like generators, pumps and controls are dry, according to the power company and to Mr. Jaczko, who spent a couple of hours clambering over walls of sandbags and inspecting waterproof barriers, some of which were added in recent months at the commission’s insistence.

In the control room, the commission chairman stopped to look at a display that said, in huge numerals, “1006.46,” referring to how far in feet the Missouri stands above sea level. Another display, in red, showed a squiggly history of the river’s rise.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/us/28nuke.html?_r=3

[MineralMan]

1. That's good news.

As long as the river doesn't rise further, the plant should be OK.

[blackspade]

2. Being OK dosn't fill me with confidence.

We seem to continually build these potential time-bombs in the worst places.

[BeFree]

5. And if it does rise

The plant, at least some of it, will be IN OK.

Look at the ground there and one can't help but say: Why didn't they build it up 15 feet higher?
Answer is: Doing better cost too much. Meaning: ""We built this as cheap as they allowed"".

[plumbob]

3. Hmm, it's "dry" now, but just a bit ago, it was "seeping"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4898313

[JJW]

4. Every running on emergency backup

If anything else fails, there will be a meltdown. There are no more back ups.