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

Dam Danger, Flooding and Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant

That’s the Garrison Dam in North Dakota. It is one of six dams that comprise the principle flood control of the Missouri river and part of the protection for the Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant I have written about here Would a little American nuclear emergency make you look up? We're having one and here

The Missouri River is in flood stage. The Missouri River is in 100 year flood stage and according to one source I cite in the diary if we roll snake eyes on our luck not only is a nuclear power plant criticized for it’s lack of flood preparedness in danger, but St. Louis may end up to their armpits in water.

...Barring any other issues, the gates will stay open and all 28 of them should be in use by next week, raised slightly higher to increase the flow rate.
The gates will contribute about 65,000 cfs to the full release of 150,000 cfs scheduled to start sometime next week.

Meantime, the corps expects the lake behind the dam will continue to rise to 1,856 feet elevation. The new record elevation will occur because the top of the spillway is higher when the gates go up and because of the bulge of water expected from mountain snowmelt. ...

Bismark Tribune



As alarming as that might be the true issue may not be with the Garrison Dam, but the Fort Peck Dam the first dam in the system. Here is a scenario taken from Bernard Shanks a guest commentator from the St. Louis Today.com website.

The Fort Peck Dam is built with a flawed design that has suffered a well-known fate for this type of dam — liquefaction — in which saturated soil loses its stability. Hydraulic-fill dams are prone to almost instant collapse from stress or earthquakes. California required all hydraulic-fill dams be torn out or rebuilt — and no other large dams have been built this way since.

At three miles wide, Fort Peck Dam last opened its floodgates 36 years ago. By the end of the first week in June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be releasing a record spill of water. The corps recently answered the question of possible failure with a statement the dam is "absolutely safe." It may be the largest at-risk dam in the nation.

Snip

Here is a likely scenario: Garrison, Oahe and three other downstream earthen dams would have to catch and hold a massive amount of water, an area covering nearly 250 square miles 100 feet deep. But earthen dams, when overtopped with floodwater, do not stand. They break and erode away, usually within an hour. All are full.

There is a possibility a failure of Fort Peck Dam could lead to a domino-like collapse of all five downstream dams. It probably would wreck every bridge, highway, pipeline and power line and split the heartland of the nation, leaving a gap 1,500 miles wide. Countless sewage treatment plants, toxic waste sites and even Superfund sites would be flushed downstream. The death toll and blow to our economy would be ghastly

St. Louis Today link to an opinion piece.

Fire Knocks Out Spent Fuel Cooling at Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant

You know how people just love to say no one could have foreseen?

Well people were asking me a few days ago why did you write the diary Would a little American nuclear emergency make you look up? We're having one you're such a fear mongerer you should have written your diary from the perspective of the flood.

I wrote that diary so people couldn't say who could have foreseen.

I foresaw and I'm nobodies nuclear engineer.

A fire in an electrical switch room on Tuesday briefly knocked out cooling for a pool holding spent nuclear fuel at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant outside Omaha, Neb., plant officials said.

The safety of deep pools used to store used radioactive fuel at nuclear plants has been an issue since the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in March. If the cooling water a pool is lost, the used nuclear fuel could catch fire and release radiation.

snip

Officials at Fort Calhoun said the situation at their plant came nowhere near to Fukushima's. They said it would have taken 88 hours for the heat produced by the fuel to boil away the cooling water.

Workers restored cooling in about 90 minutes, and plant officials said the temperature in the pool only increased by two degrees.

The fire, reported at 9:30 a.m., led to the loss of electrical power for the system that circulates cooling water through the spent fuel pool, according to a report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A chemical fire suppression system discharged, and the plant's fire brigade cleared smoke from the room and reported that the fire was out at 10:20 a.m., the NRC said.

Pro Publica link

Sky Watching 1a

We’ve had some excitement in the heavens over the last couple of days with the sun throwing off an impressive coronal mass ejection and with that lots of people are going outside tonight in hopes of catching an aurora display.

That gave me the idea to introduce one of my favorite hobbies and maybe introduce some ideas that will give everyone something else to do as they hope the coming geomagnetic storm stimulates some exciting lights.

Let’s first make a list of the things you will need.

1. Night sky free of clouds
2. Hot chocolate or other libation
3. If you want to get fancy a pair of binoculars, but really all you need are your eyes.

“We are voyagers on the Earth through space, as passengers on a ship, and many of us have never thought of any part of the vessel but the cabin where we are quartered”.. S.P. Langley


Tonight everyone is going to want to observe the northern sky as that is the direction any aurora activity would come from, and I thought it would be appropriate if we learned how to find the North Star Polaris.



The key to being able to find Polaris is the ability to recognize and spot the constellation Ursa Major some of the stars of which comprise the big dipper. The way I like to think of it is the big dipper pours out Polaris. Polaris is about 25 degrees away from the pointer star, and it just so happens you have a great astronomical compass at your disposal in your hands. A hand with all your fingers open is about 25 degrees from your thumb to your pinky finger, like you were making a hang ten sign or saying I love you in sign language.



Now if you find you’re digging this and want to find the other stars and planets around us this is a great place to start. We find the other stars by picking out prominent stars and using pointers and our hand compasses. Run out and get yourselves one of these a two sided planespherefor 10 bucks and this Nightwatch as a reference book and I daresay you could have a lifetime of viewing enjoyment. I know I can say I still haven’t found everything I’ve been looking for.

My favorite sky watching music is above.

Namaste friends go out and enjoy the sky!

The Week in UFO Phenomenon: Hail to the Chiefs!

Wassup again my fellow travelers and welcome to what I hope will be a real fun edition of TWiUP and perhaps even a series within a series presidential UFO stories. I’m not going to include our current President. I’m still sore with him about the issue because he clowned us along with Donald Trump…Where’s Biggie and Tupac, what really happened at Area 51. He can make it all better by telling everything he knows about Area 51 : )

I’d like to begin with a man we all know and love ole number 40 Ronald Wilson Reagan.




The Dutch is my favorite of the UFO Presidents. He’s a dude who didn’t seem afraid to live by his own impressions. Following is a nice rundown of when Ronnie knew what he saw.

Reagan was missing when the party began and the party was held up until he and Nancy arrived nearly an hour late. According to both Allen’s and Ball’s version of events Reagan was very excited. He described the fact that he and Nancy had seen a UFO while coming down the coast highway to Los Angeles and stopped to watch the event. Some unconfirmed stories of the event stated that the object actually landed. Lucy in her account of the event stated, “After he elected President, I kept thinking about that event, and wondered if he still would have won if he told everyone that he saw a flying saucer.”

The other Reagan sighting occurred in 1974 just before Reagan ended his second term as governor. The story was told by Air Force Colonel Bill Paynter who became the pilot of Reagan’s Cessna Citation jet plane following his retirement from the Air Force.

It a story Ronald Reagan told to Norman Miller, Washington Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal, the governor’s plane was making an approach to land in Bakersfield California. It was during the descent that Reagan noticed a strange light behind the plane. "We followed it for several minutes, Reagan told Miler. “ It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens."

Paynter, the pilot stated, “"it appeared to be several hundred yards away" and it was "a fairly steady light until it begun to accelerate. Then it appeared to elongate. Then the light took off. It went up a 45 degrees angle at a high rate of speed. Everyone on the plane was surprised."

Link

I actually just ran across this today and it was priceless to me. This account is from an interview in Aintitcool.com when Steven Spielberg screened ET.

Quint: Now, I’ve heard a story that I wanted to run by you. I have no idea if it’s true, but an effects friend of mine told me about a special screening of E.T. for Ronald Reagan. Have you heard this story?

Steven Spielberg: I was there!

Quint: The story I heard is that when Reagan saw it he started talking about how close to reality it was and he was quickly ushered out of the room. Is that true?

Steven Spielberg: No, he wasn’t ushered out of the room. He was the President of the United States! Nobody could usher Ronald Reagan out of the room! It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week of as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.

He just stood up and he looked around the room, almost like he was doing a headcount, and he said, “I wanted to thank you for bringing E.T. to the White House. We really enjoyed your movie,” and then he looked around the room and said, “And there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.”

And he said it without smiling! But he said that and everybody laughed, by the way. The whole room laughed because he presented it like a joke, but he wasn’t smiling as he said it.

The room did laugh and then later on I’ll never forget my conversation with the President. He pulled me aside, he said… and I can’t do Reagan. I wish I could do that breathy, wonderful voice of his… And Nancy Reagan was standing right next to him and the President said to me, “I only have one criticism about your movie,” and I said “What’s that?” He said, “How long were the end credits?” I said, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe three, three and a half minutes?” He said, “In my day, when I was an actor, our end credits were maybe 15 seconds long.”

aint it cool link



The week in Youtube





I’m dying to know what these people from these places are saying.





Youtube was full of the above example from all over the world too.



Crop circle season! If you missed Sunday’s TWiUP at the movies here’s a link As it’s crop circle season I’m going to show some of the fun formations that have occurred in the previous week.







Namaste friends and see you Sunday unless something exciting happens. Oh and remember I'm still hoping to do a feature called Kossack tales. Come out into the light. How can people who call themselves Hippies be shy about admitting they believe in UFO stories and have seen a trippy thing or two? Shoot me a message if you're willing to share and write up your story.

The Week in UFO Phenomenon: It’s Crop Circle Season!

Howdy space rangers and welcome to a new idea I have for TWiUP Sunday afternoon at the movies.

It’s crop circle season once again, and as part of the normal Tuesday offerings I’m going to start including a round-up of the crop circles that have been found in the past week. It’s been a very active year so far with 12 reported in England so far and 16 others worldwide, and for those who enjoy attempting to de-code potential messages in the figures there is already a lot to chew on.

I thought it would be an excellent idea to lead of the documentary portion of TWiUP with one of my favorites 2009’s New Swirled Order.

New swirled order from NuoVisoProductions on Vimeo.

You can watch it uninterrupted and without subtitles at the above link.

Fukushima: Crimes Against Humanity Lies

They are lying. They have been lying from day one through today, but in this case their lies are putting at risk the health of millions including yours and mine.

The Japanese government has expressed regret for not disclosing some important results of the radiation monitoring conducted near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant soon after the accident.

snip

A reading on March 12th, one day after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the plant, shows that radioactive tellurium was detected 7 kilometers away. Tellurium is produced during the melting of nuclear fuel.

Three hours before the data was collected, the government expanded the radius of the evacuation area around the plant from 3 kilometers to 10 kilometers.
But the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported at a news conference several hours later that the nuclear fuel was intact.
The government also failed to disclose the high radiation levels in weeds 30 to 50 kilometers from the plant. On March 15th, 123 million becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per kilogram were detected 38 kilometers northeast of the plant.

Professor Yasuyuki Muramatsu of Gakushuin University says radioactive iodine has a high effect on children. He says that if the data had been released earlier, more measures could have been taken to protect them from exposure.

link

Regret? Are you double barreled hot shitting me? Let’s make sure we got this straight Tepco/Japanese government. You reported the fuel was intact. I remember it don’t worry only a few feet of the core was exposed blah blah blah, but at the time you knew that substances that are only produced by nuclear reaction were sitting on the ground 7 kilometers away. You scum sucking liars.




All 3 of those piles have been cooking for a month now, (remember when they were saying 1 had cold shut down? BWAHAHAHAHHAH) so these atomic piles have now become a new substance on earth they call corium and they have melted down, meh into the basements? they have definately left the containment vessels.

Nuclear boy has shit like the facehugger monster from Alien and he has burned through his diaper, so the corium is now headed south to the water table, and it should get there if it will say in about a month or so and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM thermal explosion when a substance a couple ticks off as hot as the sun hits a water table and you have 3 atomic geisers like old faithful except it goes off continuously as opposed to on the hour.

That's just the fun with the reactors, want to talk fun with the fuel pools? Take that scenario and put it in an open air environment nuclear boy never had on a diaper, and run it. Let's add on to now the fuel has interesting geometries we get us a little criticality explosion like what happened at Kyshtym , so far I'd say the pools are probably cooking so hard no one who wants to keep their lives can work anywhere near them for more than 5 minutes. Now they should have a line of say 20K people ready to get digging and see if they can't go under the entire thing with some sort of moderator tomb idea, it needs to be like a hoover dam effort, do you see anything like that? Me either..

For the last two weeks at least 4 times a day I’ve taken to looking at the live feeds from TEPCO and JPN You can watch both here I don’t know if they want us to believe them or our lying eyes, but that complex has been smoking and steaming for at least 2 weeks, and today?

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says steam was observed coming out of the floor of the No.1 reactor building, and extremely high radiation was detected in the vicinity
.
Tokyo Electric Power Company inspected the inside of the No.1 reactor building on Friday with a remote-controlled robot.

TEPCO said it found that steam was rising from a crevice in the floor, and that extremely high radiation of 3,000 to 4,000 millisieverts per hour was measured around the area. The radiation is believed to be the highest detected in the air at the plant.

TEPCO says the steam is likely coming from water at a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius that has accumulated in the basement of the reactor building.
The company sees no major impact from the radiation so far on ongoing work, as it has been detected only within a limited section of the building

Another NHK linkl

How long must the Japanese people and the very world allow TEPCO and the Japanese government to piss in our faces and call it rain water? Perhaps when there is an actual threat to these inept peoples liberty they will treat this with the requisite seriousness, and stop with all the freaking lies.