Is Cooper Plant Going To Flood Like Fort Calhoun in 2011?

Update March 25

Got out of the UE yesterday. 

Update March 21

The characteristics of the Missouri River have change since the Cooper plant has been built due to climate change. The plant now is not designed to be safe with a river system running out of control for the foreseeable future.

The Cooper plant now is a ticking nuclear time bomb out to destroy the nuclear industry and horribly damage out economy. The scenario I worry is if the plant melts down in just the right political environment. The meltdown could be so politically ugly it would cause us to shutdown all the nuclear plants in the USA in a extremely short period of time. We would quickly lose 20% of our electricity. The prolonged power shortages and price spikes and elevated cost of electricity would throw us into a depression. This is not a far fetched scenario, Japan shutdown all their nuclear plants in the aftermath of Fukushima. It would take us a decade or more to replace 20% of our electricity.    

The Fight to Tame a Swelling River With Dams Outmatched by Climate Change

Along the Missouri, John Remus controls a network of dams that dictates the fate of millions. ‘It was not designed to handle this.’

By Tyler J. Kelley

March 21, 2019

There were no good choices for John Remus, yet he had to choose.

Should he try to hold back the surging Missouri River but risk destroying a major dam, potentially releasing a 45-foot wall of water? Or should he relieve the pressure by opening the spillway, purposefully adding to the flooding of towns, homes and farmland for hundreds of miles.

Mr. Remus controls an extraordinary machine — the dams built decades ago to tame a river system that drains parts of 10 states and two Canadian provinces. But it was designed for a different era, a time before climate change and the extreme weather it can bring.

“It’s human nature to think we are masters of our environment, the lords of creation,” said Mr. Remus, who works for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. But there are limits, he said. And the storm last week that caused him so much trouble was beyond what his network of dams can control.

“It was not designed to handle this,” he said.

The storm, the “bomb cyclone” that struck the upper Midwest, dumped its rain onto frozen soil, which acted less like dirt and more like concrete. Instead of being absorbed, water from the rain and melted snow raced straight into the Missouri River and its tributaries…

Update March 19

I thinking flooding debris is overwhelming the intake cooling water trash racks or the big transmission towers around the plant are compromised due to flooding?  

The flooding is worsening or Cooper is having equipment problem. Power is now at 48% power(still at 100% power). So the NRC and industry is drastically restricting information to outsiders. They are going to get use to just not saying anything. A bad accident is going happen, the NRC is still going to still play this disclose nothing game, and public credibility is going to crater and wreck the industry.

I really don't get this. Just shutdown the plant in the beginning when a big flood is lapping at your feet. I'll bet most of the shutdown cost is tax deductible.

Reposted from 3/15  

***Update March 17

So here it is Sunday and they are still at 100% power. The river has been lapping right up to it shutdown limit. How long are they going to operate like this with the water so high? It could be three months before the water recedes, god knows what weather will show up in three months. 

Remember, right after shutdown, the decay heat is putting out 10% power with the plant shutdown. A few days or a week they are still putting out a lot of heat. Would you like to get into a jam with the core putting out 10% power or .2 percent power?  

Update March 16

Heading for shutdown!

This plant has the highest risk of a meltdown or terrible accident for the next month in the USA 

This is going to be a long lasting flooding...probably still flooded during the summer. At least Fort Calhoun is permanently shutdown. It is setting up to be worst than 2011. The problem with flooding is the potential of a so called unexpected dam collapse. It could quickly overrun the plant with flooding.

These rising river levels mean the unthinkable is possible: that 2019 could be the year that two terrible flood years — the devastating flooding on the Elkhorn River in 2010 and the record-shattering flood of 2011 on the Missouri River — wrap into one.

“The 2011 flooding was probably one of the bigger disaster events in our history. I think we can safely say ... this event rivals it,” said Bryan Tuma, assistant director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

 Deadly, Historic Midwest Flooding Threatens Ericson Dam, Nuclear Plant in Nebraska

By Pam Wright and Ron Brackett
2 hours ago
weather.com

Flooding in parts of the Midwest has left one man dead threatens a Nebraska dam and nuclear power plant as heavy rains mixed with a melting snowpack swell waterways to historic levels.

An unidentified Nebraska farmer was killed Thursday after the tractor he was using to try and save a stranded motorist was carried away by floodwaters, the Omaha World-Herald reports. The incident occurred at Shell Creek near Columbus, in eastern Nebraska.

Ericson Dam in north central Nebraska is at risk of failing as the Cedar River continues to rise, according to a report by the National Weather Service.

Officials in Boone County, downstream from the dam, also warned of the "imminent failure" of the dam, Boone County News reported.

Both agencies are warning impacted residents to seek higher ground.

In Nebraska, a utility company was placing sandbags around a threatened nuclear power plant Thursday as the Missouri River continued to rise, the Omaha World-Journal reports.

Mark Becker, spokesman for the Nebraska Public Power District, told the newspaper that should the river hit the level of 45.5 feet as projected by the National Weather Services this weekend, the Cooper Nuclear Station, which accounts for 35 percent of NPPD's power, will have to be shut down.

(MORE: Flooding Continues in the Plains, Midwest As Snow Melts; Severe Threat Waning in Midwest, South)

Becker noted that should the plant shut down, DPPD will be able to get power elsewhere and they don't expect the closure to lead to outages.

On Thursday, DPPD lost another small electrical plant when the Spencer Dam failed at the Niobrara River and caused a large ice floe to jam a hole in the building. Workers inside the building were uninjured, Becker told the newspaper. The failure also forced the evacuation of dozens of residents along the river.