7/13/2011 Missouri River Flood: Alert Lifted at Cooper Nuclear Power Plant

Source: Gather News (gather.com)
Date: July 13, 2011 07:45 PM EDT
by: Angela Tague

On July 12, the Nebraska Public Power District lifted the "notification of unusual event" put in place at the Cooper Nuclear Station south of Omaha, Nebr. just last month. The Missouri River flood waters are finally starting to recede, causing plant workers to breathe a bit easier this week.
...
Read full article here

Editor's Note: Here is the current action plan at Cooper Nuclear Station.

7/1/2011 (Map) Levee blown causing several inch rise in Missouri river level

Date: 7/3/2011 published

On 7/1/2011 at approximately 10 AM CST, the privately owned Vanmann #30 agricultural levee was demolished via dynamite which caused a surge in the Missouri river level of several inches. The levee is just North of the Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge as per the following KETV Omaha Channel 7 video:


Based on the map in the above video, I mapped the busted levee (dynamite exploding icon) showing its relative positioning to Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station (nuke icon at top) and Cooper Nuclear Station (nuke icon at bottom):

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

The blown levee is slightly downstream (Southeast) from Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station and upstream (North) of Cooper Nuclear Station.

Here is the river level at Blair, Nebraska where Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station is located:

Click here for current Missouri river level

Here is the river level at Brownville, Nebraska where Cooper Nuclear Station is located:

Click here for current Missouri river level

Although the levee being purposely blown is alarming, it did not cause the Missouri river to rise to previous high levels.

6/24/2011 | Dutchsinse (YouTube activist) drives to Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station to measure the environmental radiation personally

Source: Dutchsinse YouTube channel
Date: 6/24/2011

To investigate for himself if rumors of a meltdown at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station are true or not, Dutchsinse has traveled to within several blocks of the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant and taken direct independent measurements with his own Geiger counter of the environment.  The verdict is...

The drive in to nuclear power plant:


Reading #1 North tip of nuclear plant 48.4 CPM:


Reading #2 South edge of nuclear plant 61.4 CPM:


Reading #3 East edge of nuclear plant 48.6 CPM:


No meltdown! Environmental levels normal.

However, both Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station and Cooper Nuclear Station (in addition to Missouri river water levels)  should be watched closely, in the event of an unexpected (or series of unexpected) levee or dam breaks.

6/24/2011 | Good site tracking Fort Calhoun and Cooper nuclear power plants flooding

Source: http://www.cartoradiations.fr/Fort_Calhoun.php
Date: Site is updated periodically
Good site tracking the flooding at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station and Cooper Nuclear Station:

Click here for news and photos

6/24/2011 | Levee Fails Upstream From Cooper Nuclear Station

Source: Nebraska.StatePaper.com
Date: 6/24/1970

Authorities: Don't worry
A levee three-miles upstream from the Cooper Nuclear Station at Brownville failed Thursday night, but authorities said the incident presented no threat to the nuclear plant. The failed levee, in Atchison County, Missouri, was breached at about 9 p.m.

Atchison County borders Nemaha and Otoe Counties in Nebraska. The Cooper plant, operated by the Nebraska Public Power District, is in Nemaha County.

An emergency evacuation was ordered for Atchison County west of I-29, including Landgdon, Watson, Phelps City, and Nishnabotna.

“This is a large breach and water will be moving rapidly. Persons should stay out of this area if previously evacuated due to danger,” the Atchison County Emergency Management office said in a prepared statement.

6/23/2011 | Top nuke official likely to visit Nebraska Monday

Source: KVNO News
Date: June 23rd, 2011
by: Robyn Wisch

Omaha, NE – KVNO News has confirmed that the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, will likely be stopping in Nebraska on Monday. Senator Mike Johanns’ office confirms the NRC has told his office to expect the Chairman Monday, although the NRC will not confirm the visit. Typically, these announcements are not confirmed until all scheduling is finalized.
...
Read full article here

6/22/2011 | Update on Fort Calhoun and Cooper nuclear power plants from an NRC perspective

Source: NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
Date: 6/22/2011

This is the official NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) news release as of today:
NRC TRACKING FLOODING AT TWO NEBRASKA NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS_11-030.iv
Download document from NRC site
Check left side bar for locations of the NRC Preliminary Event Notifications and actual Event Notification reports.

6/19/2011 | * IMPORTANT * Cooper Nuclear Station triggers Notification of Unusual Event due to Missouri river water levels rising above 42.5 feet

Date: 6/19/2011 12:13 PM CST
by: Jason Chan

Missouri river water levels have risen to a point (at present 43.7 feet as of 12:14 P.M. CST) which according to the NPPD (Nebraska Public Power District) flood emergency preparedness plan should have caused them to issue a NOUE (Notification of Unusual Event) for Cooper Nuclear Station.  The NOUE is the lowest of four emergency classes used within the United States.  Here is the graphic snapshot from the NPPD site which shows their flooding action plan and what water levels will trigger what event notifications to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission):

Cooper's Emergency Preparedness Plan (Flooding) View water levels at Brownville

Disclaimer: Cooper Nuclear Station measures the Missouri River's water elevation at the mean sea level. Conversions to depth of river in feet are placed in parentheses behind these levels. It is also important to note that changing river conditions, mountain snowmelt, and precipitation, all play a role in the fluctuating river levels. Procedure-required steps are noted with an asterisk.
Station management continuously tracks the river's level and anticipates precautionary measures for protecting plant equipment from flooding conditions.

If this action plan is being followed to the letter Cooper Nuclear Station should still be operational.

According to Omaha, Nebraska NBC Affiliate WOWT (Channel 6) the NOUE (Notification of Unusual Event) was indeed issued at 4:02 AM Sunday June 19, 2011:

...
As the Missouri River rises, the Nebraska Public Power District has declared a “Notification of Unusual Event” for the Cooper Nuclear Station. The notification was made at 4:02am Sunday. It is part of the safety and emergency preparedness plan that the station follows when certain flooding conditions are present.
...[1]

The AP also has an article going in to further detail:

...
Mark Becker, a spokesman for the Columbus-based utility, said the "notification of unusual event" sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was expected as the river swells above record levels. The declaration is the least serious of four emergency notifications established by the federal commission.
"We knew the river was going to rise for some time," Becker said. "It was just a matter of when."
The plant was operating Sunday at full capacity, and there was no threat to plant employees or to the public, he said.
...[2]

Cooper Nuclear Station is three miles southeast of Brownville, Nebraska along the Missouri River.

Here is a description of the four emergency classifications the United States uses, starting from the least severe to the most severe taken from the NRC's (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness at Nuclear Power Plants:

...

Emergency Classification

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). Additional information regarding PAGs can be found on the EPA Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/pags.html .  

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.
...

Note that there is also a 7 level international nuclear event scale, which is described in the following Wikipedia entry: International Nuclear Event Scale.  The reports sited are not based on the international scale.

Sources:
[1] Declaration at Cooper Nuclear Station, NBC WOWT (Channel 6) News
[2] Neb. nuke plant notifies feds of Missouri flooding, AP via ctpost.com

6/16/2011 | Rising water, falling journalism

Source: Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists
Date: 6/16/2011
by: Dawn Stover

Every evening, my father climbs the levee along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and peers down into the black water that swallows the road. The water is rising, and the Army Corps of Engineers says the levee has never faced such a test. Dad, a retired professor, is packing his books and papers. If the levee doesn't hold, his one-story house could be underwater for months.
...
Read entire article here (it is very good)

6/17/2011 | Emergency classifications cause confusion in semantics with regards to Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station

Date: 6/17/2011
by: Jason Chan

I have been reading some local Omaha news sites and noticed that the OPPD (Omaha Public Power District) has created a rumor control page.

Yes, it is true that there was a semantics error with citizen journalists picking up on what a particular radio talk show host originally called a "level 4 emergency" and repeating this in their own reports, when the official reports show at the highest a level 2 emergency ("Alert") being issued, with the current severity level being set back to a level 1 emergency ("Notification of Unusual Event") with regards to the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station.  This assumes the 4 level nuclear event scale used in the United States.  Per the NRC's (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness at Nuclear Power Plants:

...

Emergency Classification

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). Additional information regarding PAGs can be found on the EPA Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/pags.html .  

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.
...

Numbering from top to bottom, level 1 emergency=Notification of Unusual Event, level 2 emergency=Alert, level 3 emergency=Site Area Emergency, level 4 emergency=General Emergency with a level 1 being the least severe and level 4 being the most severe.

Here is a possible scenario on how the "level 4 emergency" terminology error got started:

1. Robert Knight host of the 5 O'clock Shadow radio show interviews Arnie Gundersen, esteemed nuclear industry expert and says that Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is at a "level 4 emergency". I believe this was an honest mistake in semantics. The "level 4 emergency" terminology slips by Mr. Gundersen's guard who compliments the host's overall summary of the situation at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station in the host's opening remark. Note, however, that the interview is excellent overall.
2. Conscientious YouTube activists and other websites pick up on the "level 4 emergency" terminology and it is propagated.
3. Jeff Rense, famous late night radio talk show host, says that Arnie Gundersen himself stated that Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is at a "level 4 emergency". Arnie Gundersen never actually said this but rather did not correct Mr. Knight the interviewer from the 5 O'clock Shadow radio program. Robert Knight is the one who said Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is at a "level 4 emergency". I feel Mr. Rense also made an honest mistake and his overall coverage of Fukushima or radiation dangers is excellent.

There is both a U.S. and international nuclear event scale where the U.S. scale has 4 levels and the international scale (formally known as the INES, or International Nuclear Event Scale) has 7 levels. The various event levels have a bureaucratic nomenclature and classification rules associated with them as well. It is easy to see how errors in semantics can occur when not everyone is a nuclear expert.

I first found out about the situation with Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station (and later Cooper Nuclear Station) from the Glowing Conversations Facebook group, where a group member had posted the viral YouTube video about Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station by a YouTube activist, not from corporate controlled news sources.  Local newspapers and television stations have been reporting on the flooding dangers with regards to Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska but unless you live in the areas covered by the local news, you probably did not hear about it.  What prompted me to do my own research is my social network and the YouTube activists.

The article titled Midwest Floods: Both Nebraska Nuke Stations Threatened by Rady Ananda of thepeoplesvoice.org is the best article so far that I have found which covers the nuclear power plants, flooding and nuclear event levels.  I will defer to the article's explanation of the various event levels.

I noticed that the article also has a slight error in reporting with regards to Cooper Nuclear Station. The author, who correctly points out the "level 4 emergency" terminology is in error actually is entrapped by semantics/bureaucratic nomenclature himself.  The sludge release per the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) was never classified as a NOUE (Notification of Unusual Event) as the article states, it was classified as a non-emergency event.

I do not blame the author or other conscientious people one bit for making semantics errors.  I personally would choose honest reporting with semantics errors any time of the day versus overt propaganda or whitewash/deceptive reporting. Besides it is one's personal responsibility to check up on all news sources no matter where they come from.

Reminder: Both Fort Calhoun and Cooper nuclear power stations in Nebraska both in danger from Missouri river flooding

Date: 6/14/2011 published
by: Jason Chan

Last week, on June 6, 2011, Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station issued an NOUE (Notice of Unusual Event) to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) due to the flooding of the Missouri river, which is the least severe emergency classification, or level 1. There are four emergency classifications which I have penciled in to the following screen grab of the top part of the original NRC PN (Preliminary Notification) report PNO-IV-11-003 from June 6, 2011 titled Fort Calhoun Station: Fort Calhoun Station Declaration of a Notification of Unusual Event Due to High River Level:
...

...
Another event was issued to the NRC on the following day (June 7, 2011) by the utility which operates the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, the OPPD (Omaha Public Power District), based on a fire in a room containing electrical equipment.  The report issued was of type "Alert" which is the second (level 2) emergency classification.  Here is the top part of the NRC report PNO-IV-11-004 titled Fort Calhoun Station: Fort Calhoun Station Declaration of an ALERT Due to Fire Affecting Plant Safety Systems:
...

...
When interviewed by an Omaha, Nebraska newspaper officials from the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station told reporters that the flood waters had encroached upon several parking lots but that there were no verified reports of the power plant building being flooded. Quoting the Omaha World Herald which is dated June 10, 2011:

...
Nuke plant: No floodwater has breached the nuclear power plant at Fort Calhoun, say officials from both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Omaha Public Power District. NRC spokeswoman Lara Uselding and OPPD spokesman Mike Jones said Thursday that some floodwater is pooling in some of the plant's parking lots, but there had been no confirmed reports of floodwater entering the currently idle plant, they said.
...

However, news reporters from KMTV Action 3 News who traveled directly to the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station (I am assuming on June 6, 2011) shot footage clearly showing flood waters right up to the walls of the buildings in the facility.

My personal feeling is that when the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant officials issued their statement to the Omaha World Herald they were perhaps trying to downplay the severity of the flooding situation?

A citizen journalist who runs the MaryGreeley YouTube channel (I assume her name is Mary Greeley, but this could be a pseudonym) says that the emergency severity at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is now level 4 but I was unable to confirm this based on official sources.  Here is the video:


I read the event reports directly at the NRC site which has at the highest a level 2 for Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, and the most recent Preliminary Notification or event report at emergency severity for Fort Calhoun is dated 6/8/2011.  Perhaps Mary Greeley is ahead of the curve and I am behind?  In any case, I think this astute lady has the right idea in general to be concerned regarding these nuclear plants being situated right on top of flood plains even if she may have jumped the gun on the emergency severity level.

Another nuclear power plant flagged by Mary Greeley as being in the Missouri river flood danger zone is the Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville, Nebraska.  This nuclear power plant is still online according to the NPPD's (Nebraska Public Power District) own site.  A level 1 NOUE (Notice of Unusual Event) will not be triggered until the Missouri river level reaches 42.5 feet.  As I am writing this article the highest current river level I am aware of is 40.1 feet.  Following is a diagram taken from the NPPD website which illustrates their flooding emergency procedure regarding Cooper Nuclear Station:

I did scan the NRC site to verify that there are no emergency level events for Cooper Nuclear Station (yet) recorded.  There was a recent non-emergency event regarding discharging sludge in to the Missouri river but that is all.

Here is Mary Greeley's video regarding Cooper Nuclear Station:


As Arnie Gundersen points out in a recent interview with Robert Knight of the a-Infos Radio Project, it would only take an unexpected event such as a dam or levee breaking that raises water levels to an extent which could put either the Fort Calhoun or Cooper nuclear power plants in jeopardy of some sort of nuclear disaster (skip ahead about 1 minute for Mr. Gunderson's interview with Robert Knight):


Having dams or levees breaking does not seem to be such an unusual occurence. ABC affiliate KETV Newswatch 7 reports that two levees have indeed broken recently in Northwest Missouri:

...
HAMBURG, Iowa -- The rising Missouri River has ruptured two levees in northwest Missouri, sending torrents of floodwater over rural farmland toward the Iowa town of Hamburg and the Missouri state park and resort of Big Lake. The levee failures both happened Monday morning.
...

The video broadcast by KETV Newswatch 7 can be found here.