On June 7, a fire knocked out the cooling pumps at the Fort Calhoun plant, bringing with it fears of Fukushima in Nebraska. Pro Publica:
A fire [1] in an electrical switch room on Tuesday briefly knocked out cooling for a pool holding spent nuclear fuel at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant [2] 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.
As ProPublica reported earlier, fire safety is a continuing concern [3] at the country's 104 commercial reactors, as is the volume of spent fuel [4] piling up at plants.
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 [5] 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.
A nuclear emergency alert was issued:
Maddow on current problems with nuclear power plants in the U.S., including the imminent/building crisis at the Fort Calhoun power plant in Nebraska pictured above (image from the Maddow Show). As you watch, keep in mind that the Fukushima reactor’s cooling pumps were knocked out by the flooding from the tsunami which hit Japan last Spring.
Watch:
900 feet vs. 903 feet. And a broken gauge. Gee, we should all feel absolutely safe. /sarcasm
All this, and yet, the national media still has not picked it up.
RELATED POSTS:
~ Radioactive Leaks Found at 48 US Nuke Sites (June 21, 2011)
~ Fukushima Could Happen Here (June 23, 2011)
~ Developing: Nuclear Plants on Alert in Nebraska (June 27, 2011)
