Would a little American nuclear emergency make you look up? We're having one

Weiner’s weiner’s weiner,

Ok, so there is a nuclear power plant in Nebraska on the Missouri river that has declared a minor emergency because of flooding.

FORT CALHOUN, Neb. (AP) -- A Nebraska nuclear power plant on the west bank of the Missouri River has declared an emergency because of the rising river.
The Omaha Public Power District, which operates the Fort Calhoun plant, says Monday that the river has reached a lever where the company is declaring a "notification of unusual event," which is the lowest of four emergency levels that are standard in the U.S. nuclear industry.

The utility says it has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and emergency management agencies in Nebraska and Iowa.

The Fort Calhoun plant, which is about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been shut down since early April for refueling. The OPPD says in a statement no release of radioactive material requiring offsite response or monitoring has occurred or is expected.

Linky

So, I pop over to wiki and what do I find?

A flood assessment performed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2010 indicated that the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station, "did not have adequate procedures to protect the intake structure and auxiliary building against external flooding events."[6] The assessment also indicated that the facility was not adequately prepared for a "worst-case" flooding scenario. A number of potential flood water penetration points were discovered that could have impacted the raw feed water supply to the cooling system, the axilliary water supply and main switchgear (electrical) room. By early 2011, corrective measures had been implemented.[6]

Wiki link

Heaven help us if they are like TEPCO.



Here is a little more information as to what issues the reactor was having from an article dated May 13th

BLAIR -- Omaha Public Power District officials are working with regulators to address concerns about the failure of a key part during a test last June at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the utility it believes the failure of the electrical component may represent a significant safety concern, but the commission has made only a preliminary judgment about the violation.
OPPD spokesman Mike Jones said Friday the utility doesn't agree that the part's failure represented a serious safety risk because three other backup parts worked fine, and the shutdown system needs only one connector to work. Plus, he says there are other ways to shut down the reactor.
"If there had been a problem, we feel we could have safely shut down the reactor," Jones said.

Linky

The good news is the reactor is shut down, but the bad news is so was Fukushima #4