American Fukushima in the making?

[Nbadan]

This is not as bad as Fukushima, yet....but now we have our own made-in-America nuclear disaster in the making

Pacifica Radio reports on the Nebraska reactor incident

part 1 (14:49) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=...
part 2 (10:01) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sTmzUzruu8
full report (40:25)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZdub3n0mI

The reporting is very thorough...

In all, it is very interesting interview. I am sure that your first thought is that... I am sure glad that their diesels aren't in the basement. They were probably smarter than those Japanese. This may make you sleep a little less well... Most, if not all, of their diesel fuel storage tanks are probably underground. These tanks have overflow and vent pipes. They were never designed to be flooded with water. The diesels have a "day tank" near the diesel that would keep it running for several hours, maybe a day, but extended operation of the diesel without its underground storage tanks would be something unanticipated by the plant design. Getting diesel fuel to a plant surrounded by flood water may also have been unanticipated. I believe that the plant will be OK as long as one of those upstream dams don't break. If that happened, the plant would be in a lot of trouble. Local switchyards would be lost, so offsite power would likely be lost. Emergency response would be hampered, because it looks like the only way in and put of the plant would be by boat. Normal service and circ water would be lost to crib house flooding. I think that the flooding of diesel storage tanks might limit the availability of diesel generators. If they lost a number of these switchgear rooms at once, they would be in big time trouble. The good thing is that the nuclear Unit is shutdown and they would probably not make the Japanese mistake of abandoning the spent fuel pool. They also have the advantage, hopefully, of not losing all their diesels at once. They should have a functioning control room to work with. Loss of offsite power and loss of Service Water is a very very serious event, though. Hopefully, those dams hold and the flooding doesn't get much worse. FYI, there is one small PWR reactor at the plant. It is very rural in location. The plant does not have a very good safety record.

[ElNono]

[boutons_deux]

"They were probably smarter than those Japanese"

The problem wasn't that Japanese were technically dumb, but the TEPCO mgmt didn't want to spend the money to backup the the reactors backup cooling systems.

And of course the _AMERICAN_ GE design to store nuclear material ABOVE the reactor, another "economy" measure, is really dumb.

[clambake]

is this somehow connected to corn?

[ChumpDumper]

So nothing has actually happened.

[InRareForm]

[Agloco]

http://www.nebraska.tv/story/1492358...ar-power-plant

The emergency level, declared as "a notification of an unusual event," is the lowest possible of four standard emergency classifications set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and, as of now, there has been no risk to the public.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Did the tsunami start in Cali or New York, Dan?