Tag Archives: omaha

Romney adviser compares sending American jobs overseas to Obama ‘outsourcing’ to OMAHA

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Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie engaged in a game of semantics, during an appearance on CNN yesterday. He compared Bain Capital sending jobs overseas while Mitt Romney was the CEO to President Barack Obama’s campaign “outsourcing” telemarketing to places like Omaha, Nebraska.

“The reporter confused the notion of outsourcing — now a lot of American companies outsource,” Gillespie explained. “They outsource domestically as well. For example, the Obama for America campaign outsources from its own campaign telemarketing services.”

“To Omaha or wherever it is,” CNN host Candy Crowley pointed out. “But we’re talking about foreign jobs here.”

Pat Garofalo and Igor Volsky at Think Progress acknowledge there is a difference between “outsourcing” and “offshoring” but:

[...] “This simply doesn’t change the fact that Bain, under Romney, invested in companies whose sole purpose was to move jobs to other countries, directly countering the narrative that Romney has been trying to set.”

…work that could have been done here. American jobs lost forever, for the financial gain of a few.


Saturday morning: Missouri River levels near Fort Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Station

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It’s a good thing that levee failed yesterday below Brownville (well,except for the people who had to evacuate in Atchison County). Had it not failed, the Cooper Nuclear Station was inches away from shut down — even without the release of more water upstream from the Gavins Point Dam by the Army Corps. It’s interesting that the NRC chairman is touring both Cooper and Fort Calhoun tomorrow and Monday.

25 June 2011: Flood stage at Brownville (location of Cooper Nuclear Station) after levee failure in northwest Missouri:

Missouri River at Brownville

24 June 2011: Levee break offers brief reprieve for Nebraska nuke plant

The failure of a Missouri River levee in northwest Missouri is offering a brief reprieve from flooding for southeast Nebraska near the Cooper nuclear power plant.

The National Weather Service says the river level dropped more than a foot at Brownville to 43.1 feet Friday morning after Thursday’s levee breach upstream in northwest Missouri.

Before the breach, the river had been 44.8-feet-deep at Brownville on Thursday. The weather service predicts the river to return to that depth over the weekend.

The Nebraska Public Power District owns the nuclear power plant. The river would have to rise to 46.5 feet before reaching Cooper, but the plant would be shut down as a precaution if the river reached 45.5 feet.

25 June 2011: Flood state at Blair (location near Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant):

Missouri River near Blair

NRC chairman to tour both Neb. nuclear plants

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) _ The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will visit Nebraska’s two nuclear power plants to check out the measures they’ve taken to battle flooding along the Missouri River. The commission says Gregory Jaczko will visit Cooper nuclear power plant near Brownville on Sunday, and then tour Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Blair on Monday. He will also take a helicopter tour of flooding on the river. Fort Calhoun remains shut down because of concern about floodwaters, but a series of barriers have stopped the water’s advance. It is run by the Omaha Public Power District. Cooper continues to operate at full capacity, but the Nebraska Public Power District is monitoring the river closely. Previously, NRC officials have said both utilities have taken appropriate measures to protect the power plants.

Jaczko is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday afternoon in Omaha.

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Thursday morning: Missouri River flooding and Nebraska’s nuclear plants

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News reports this morning — something to keep in mind is that Cooper Nuclear Station is  larger than Fort Calhoun. This CNN article below gives us some detail as to the situations of both plants: Cooper has about 60 employees sleeping on cots to be onsite around the clock, and some areas of the Fort Calhoun plant are already under 2 feet of water.

23 JUNE 2011: CNN – The Cooper Nuclear Station, which is currently operating at full power and the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant are [both] under an “unusual event declaration” by the NRC.

Cooper, according to the statement, “sits two and a half feet above current river levels.”

Nebraska utility officials have erected barriers to protect buildings at the plant from flooding and have installed a berm around the facility’s electrical switchyard.

However, CNN affiliate KETV reported Wednesday that, as a precautionary move, the facility is keeping dozens of staff members onsite around the clock. The station reported that about 60 people are sleeping on cots at the plant and that the staffers are being rotated out every two days.

The NRC has sent more inspectors to Fort Calhoun where many areas of the plant are under two feet of water, according to the statement. Plant operators there have also erected berms around buildings and the electrical switchyard, as well as a concrete barrier around transformers.

Current river levels near Nebraska’s nuclear plants (BEFORE the impact of Gavins Point) are as follows:

  • The river level at Blair (Fort Calhoun plant area) is slightly under 32.5 feet. The Fort Calhoun plant is already closed, but as that CNN article noted above, areas of the plant are already under 2 feet of water. The NOAA notes that at 33.5 feet at this location, there would be ‘significant’ flooding from Blair to Fort Calhoun.

National Weather Service advisories:

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR
  THE MISSOURI RIVER NEAR BLAIR.
* AT  2:01 AM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 32.4 FEET.
* FLOOD STAGE IS 26.5 FEET.
* MODERATE FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND MODERATE FLOODING IS FORECAST.
* FORECAST...THE RIVER WILL CONTINUE RISING TO NEAR 32.5 FEET BY THIS
  MORNING.  ADDITIONAL RISES MAY BE POSSIBLE THEREAFTER.
* IMPACT...AT 30.0 FEET...FLOODWATERS WILL IMPACT I-29 IN AREAS NORTH
  OF THE CRESCENT AND I-680 INTERCHANGE.
THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR
  THE MISSOURI RIVER AT BROWNVILLE.
* AT  2:00 AM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 44.7 FEET.
* FLOOD STAGE IS 33.0 FEET.
* RECORD FLOODING IS OCCURRING AND RECORD FLOODING IS FORECAST.
* FORECAST...THE RIVER WILL CONTINUE TO FALL TO A STAGE OF 44.3 FEET
  BY TOMORROW MORNING BUT ADDITIONAL RISES ARE POSSIBLE THEREAFTER.
* IMPACT...AT 44.0 FEET...WATER NEARS THE TOP OF THE FEDERAL LEVEES
  ON BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER.

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Nebraska’s nuclear plants: Army Corps set to release more water from Gavins Point Dam

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File:Gavins-record.jpg

Gavins Point Dam releases 150,000 cubic feet per second of water June 14, 2011, a record that more than doubles the previous high release. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Jay Woods)

Army Corps To Release More Water From Gavins Point

The Army Corps of Engineers said it is set to release 1.2 million gallons of water from the dam in South Dakota.

The impact could add up to a half-foot of water as the Missouri River moves downstream. The river is currently 34.5 feet deep in Omaha. That’s almost six feet above flood stage.

The Army Corps said it expects to release about 160,000 cubic feet of water per second from the dam. That is a surprise to some who thought the highest the corps would go was 150,000 cubic feet per second.

In a statement released Tuesday, corps Brig. Gen. John McMahon said, “We thought we would be able to hold at 150,000 CFS for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, recent rains have reduced our flexibility, and we must evacuate these floodwaters to manage the remaining flood control storage in the reservoir system. As we’ve stated all along, heavy rain storms could result in major revisions.”

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Level 4 nuclear emergency / classifications: America (NRC) vs. International (INES)

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There are rumors that Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant in Nebraska is under a Level 4 emergency classification. Fort Calhoun is currently under a “Notification of Unusual Event (NOUE)” — which is the 4th (and lowest) emergency classification in the US. This is completely different from a Level 4 event on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). There’s a HUGE difference between the NRC’s Emergency Classifications and the INES’s Emergency Classifications.

Neither Fort Calhoun or Cooper Nuclear Station are being classified by the INES scale. (NOTE: Fort Calhoun was on “Alert” classification in addition to the NOUE classification  for one day this month.) Here are the definitions and links:

Emergency Classification in America:

Emergency Classification is a set of plant conditions which indicate a level of risk to the public. Nuclear power plants use the four emergency classifications listed below in order of increasing severity.

  • Notification of Unusual Event - Under this category, events are in process or have occurred which indicate potential degradation in the level of safety of the plant. No release of radioactive material requiring offsite response or monitoring is expected unless further degradation occurs.
  • Alert - If an alert is declared, events are in process or have occurred that involve an actual or potential substantial degradation in the level of safety of the plant. Any releases of radioactive material from the plant are expected to be limited to a small fraction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protective action guides (PAGs).
  • Site Area Emergency - A site area emergency involves events in process or which have occurred that result in actual or likely major failures of plant functions needed for protection of the public. Any releases of radioactive material are not expected to exceed the EPA PAGs except near the site boundary.
  • General Emergency - A general emergency involves actual or imminent substantial core damage or melting of reactor fuel with the potential for loss of containment integrity. Radioactive releases during a general emergency can reasonably be expected to exceed the EPA PAGs for more than the immediate site area.

~~~~~~~~~

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES):

Level 4: Accident with local consequences:

Impact on people and environment: 

Minor release of radioactive material unlikely to result in implementation of planned countermeasures other than local food controls.

At least one death from radiation.

Impact on radiological barriers and control:

Fuel melt or damage to fuel ­resulting in more than 0.1% release of core inventory.

Release of significant quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high ­probability of significant public exposure.

Related:

The flooding of Nebraska’s nuclear power plants: Fort Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Station

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 This morning, The Omaha World Herald reports there’s absolutely nothing to worry about with the flooding and the two nuclear reactors. Why is anyone worried? Don’t worry!

Tim Burke, vice president at Omaha Public Power District, said the plant’s flood barriers are being built to a level that will protect against rain and the release of record amounts of water from upstream dams on the Missouri River.

“We don’t see any concerns around the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station,” Burke said at a briefing in Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle’s office.

The nuclear plant, 20 miles north of Omaha, was shut down April 9 for refueling. It has not been restarted because of the imminent flooding.

Cooper Nuclear Station, which is about 70 miles south of Omaha near Brownville, Neb., continues to operate even as it makes similar flood protections. Cooper is owned by Nebraska Public Power District. The river would have to rise about 6 feet higher for the plant to go into a cold shutdown.

[...] However, other problems at the plant and some of the flood precautions themselves have unnerved people:

>>A fire at the outset of flooding temporarily disrupted power to the spent fuel pool.

>>The nuclear station shifted to an alert status.

>>Flights over the plant have been restricted.

>>Fort Calhoun was and continues to be one of the NRC’s most tightly monitored plants because of problems it had before the flooding.

Dricks said the NRC has taken the unusual step of sending more inspectors and a branch chief to Fort Calhoun. A branch chief is a top regional regulator. In this case, it’s the individual responsible for overseeing Fort Calhoun inspections and compliance.

Also, OPPD is bringing in additional boats, food and water for employees, which is not a cause for alarm, Dricks said. “It’s called prudence.”

[...] Elizabeth Ishan Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the flight restrictions at Fort Calhoun are intended to keep curiosity seekers out of the immediate vicinity. Planes can still fly near the plant if they have flight plans and are in contact with air traffic controllers. Smaller aircraft are restricted in how close they can get to the plant.

Otherwise, there’s a risk of midair collisions that could jeopardize operations on the ground. “When you keep the area above the ground safe, you’re going to keep the people on the ground safe, too,” Cory said.

John Remus of the Corps of Engineers said the river level at Fort Calhoun had yet to reflect the full release of water from Gavins Point Dam.

Note that Cooper Nuclear Plant is located in Brownville, NE and, like Fort Calhoun, happens to also be under an FAA Temporary Flight Restriction until further notice:

06/07/2011 1/6704 ZMP NE HAZARDS BROWNVILLE., NE zoom to 1/6704
06/06/2011 1/6523 ZMP NE HAZARDS FORT CALHOUN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT BLAIRNE, NE

Via DBKP: On June 14, 2011, the report Cooper Nuke Plant Will Get More NRC Oversight:

NRC inspectors said some of the station’s procedures for manually operating valves – which are part of system for releasing coolants under high pressure – wouldn’t work in the event of a fire. The independent emergency cooling system is one means available to provide water to cool the reactor in case of an emergency.

“Fire protection programs are a critical component in plant safety and the NRC is paying special attention to ensure [Cooper] takes actions to fully correct this issue,” according to Region IV Administrator Elmo E. Collins.

According to an informative post at the site The People’s Voice, the Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant and the Cooper Nuclear station are ‘partially submerged’ by Missouri floodwaters.

Below: The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station from the air Thursday [6/16/11]. OPPD was putting the finishing touches on federally ordered flood-defense improvements before flooding began. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Enlarged photo

Here are the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s EVENT NOTIFICATION REPORTS  for June/2011 at Fort Calhoun or Cooper Nuclear Plant:

  • 08 June 2011 | Fort Calhoun Event 46932: ALERT declared due to fire in switchgear room. Alert exited later in the day. Fort Calhoun remains in Unusual Event HU 1, EAL 5 for River Level greater than 1004′ elevation as reported under EN #46929.

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What’s happening at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant? (19 miles north of Omaha, NE)

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Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant is an island, but authorities are hoping it stays dry.
fort calhoun power plant
Image: Associated Press

Business Insider reports — June 15, 2011:

A fire in Nebraska’s Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant briefly knocked out the cooling process for spent nuclear fuel rods, ProPublica reports.

The fire occurred on June 7th, and knocked out cooling for approximately 90 minutes. After 88 hours, the cooling pool would boil dry and highly radioactive materials would be exposed.

On June 6th, the Federal Administration Aviation (FAA) issued a directive banning aircraft from entering the airspace within a two-mile radius of the plant.

Channel 6 news notes (June 14, 2011) that OPPC is intentionally flooding the containment building to cool the rods:

The facility was taken offline to refuel earlier this year so the containment building has been flooded by OPPD in order to cool the fuel rods.

Hanson adds they have a number of backup systems in place to continue to pump clean water through the spent fuel pool and into the reactor containment building so he says there is nothing to fear.

Gather — June 16, 2001:

Flood waters from the swollen Missouri River are surrounding the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska, and the status has been classified as “notification of an unusual event,” a low-level emergency.

While officials insist that there has been no release of radioactive material, the situation is very frightening… Citizens are rightly concerned that the Fort Calhoun plant could be breached by flood waters, causing radioactivity to be released.

The Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) has denied rumors regarding the situation, including the rumor that the Fort Calhoun plant is actually at a level 4 emergency. A no-fly zone has been set up by the FAA around the plant, causing concern that it is because radioactivity has been released into the air. According to OPPD, the flight restrictions are in place because of the flooding. But this raises the question, why would flooding cause them to restrict planes from flying over a certain area?

Wall Street Journal — June 8, 2011:

WASHINGTON—A nuclear power plant north of Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday briefly lost the ability to cool a pool of used nuclear fuel after a fire at the site, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

The NRC said the plant recovered cooling ability without activating backup systems and “temperatures in the pool remained at safe levels.” The public was not in danger because the plant has been shut down since early April for a refueling outage, the agency said.

Spent fuel pools in the U.S. have received increased scrutiny after a recent crisis in Japan involving potentially overheated nuclear fuel and the release of dangerous radiation.

The agency declared an alert, the second of four emergency classes, at 9:40 a.m., 10 minutes after “an indication of fire” in a building at the plant. The NRC didn’t disclose the cause of the fire. Automatic fire control systems activated and the fire was out by 10:20 a.m., the agency said. The plant is operated by the Omaha Public Power District.

OPPD (Omaha Public Power District):

  • At Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, OPPD declared a Notification of Unusual Event (NOUE). This is the least-serious of four emergency classifications. OPPD declared a NOUE because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects the Missouri River level will reach 1,004 feet above mean sea level later this week, and is expected to remain at or above that level for more than a month.
  • Other nuclear power plants have made similar declarations in the past and then came out of the NOUE when water levels dropped. Fort Calhoun Station will remain in this emergency classification until it is expects the water level will drop and remain below the 1,004-foot mark.

Video uploaded June 14:

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