"Flooding Brings Worries Over Two Nuclear Plants"

"KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As record floodwaters along the Missouri River drench homes and businesses, concerns have grown about keeping a couple of notable structures dry: two riverside nuclear power plants in Nebraska.

Though the plants have declared 'unusual events,' the lowest level in the emergency taxonomy used by federal nuclear regulators, both were designed to withstand this level of flooding, and neither is viewed as being at risk for a disaster, said a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

'We think they’ve taken all the necessary precautions and made the appropriate arrangements to deal with the flooding conditions,' said the spokesman, Victor Dricks.

One plant, the Fort Calhoun Station, about 19 miles north of Omaha, was shut down in April for refueling, and the operators elected to keep it in 'cold shutdown' in anticipation of the flooding. The other plant, Cooper Nuclear Station, located downriver and situated on higher ground, is still operating."

A. G. Sulzberger and Matthew L. Wald report for the New York Times June 20, 2011.

SEE ALSO:

"Water Flows Over Tops of Levees in Missouri; Flooding Alert Issued for Neb. Nuclear Plant" (Minneapolis Star Tribune)