Cooper atomic reactor -- identical twin to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 -- sludge pond uncontrollably releasing contents into river due to flooding

Photo by Diane Krogh/Lighthawk showing the 1993 flood at Cooper atomic reactor in NebraskaA "Current Event Notification Report" dated June 9th, submitted by Cooper atomic power plant in Nebraska to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, states:

OFFSITE NOTIFICATION CONCERNING INABILITY TO MEET SLUDGE POND DISCHARGE PERMIT DUE TO RIVER LEVELS

"Notification was made to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality regarding the inability to conform to the NPDES permit, since the discharges from the sludge pond to the Missouri River are uncontrolled at this time. As a result of high Missouri River levels, the sludge pond was overtopped. The discharges into this pond are subject to NPDES requirements. The inputs into the sludge pond are described in the NPDES permit as low volume wastewater. There are three outfalls which discharge into the pond. Outfall 002B is described as Clearwell Discharge plus Outfall 004 Emergency Overflow. Outfall 002C is described as Floor Drains. Outfall 004 is described as Reverse Osmosis Reject and Boiler Blowdown Waste streams. There is no radiological contamination in the pond.

"Additionally, the current and projected flooding conditions of the Missouri River high river levels have resulted in some media inquiries regarding potential changes in plant operation. Public information personnel and Management have responded to these inquiries with information on the impact of river level and preparations for additional actions should conditions warrant additional protective actions.

"Current river level is approximately 896 ft. MSL, three feet below the elevation which requires declaration of a NOUE, and approximately 4.8 feet below the crest of the 1993 flood, which was the highest flood recorded at the site. Current river elevation is 7 feet below grade elevation. A press release is not planned at this time. River level is currently projected to be 897.5 ft by Tuesday 6/14.

"Current river level is characterized as Moderate Flooding by the National Weather Service. There are currently no operational problems due to river conditions.

"The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified."

Paul Gunter, now of Beyond Nuclear, wrote a backgrounder on the 1993 Missouri River flood at Cooper.

Cooper is a General Electric Mark 1 Boiling Water Reactor -- an identical twin to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4. Tsunami flooding caused a nuclear catastrophe in Japan. Will Missouri River flooding cause one in Nebraska?

Update on June 12, 2011 by admin

Are Cooper's uncontrolled sludge releases into the Missouri River in fact non-radiological? This document from Cooper (see pages 30-31) shows that sludge at Pilgrim 1 (also a GE BWR Mark 1, just like Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4) was intensely radioactive, begging the question, are the sludges in question in the holding pond at Cooper also radioactive? Note also a radiological overexposure incident at Brunswick Unit 2 atomic reactor in North Carolina, yet another GE BWR Mark 1.

Overwhelming public interest in Beyond Nuclear meeting with NRC on US Mark I Reactors: Call in volume crashes federal agency telephone line

Beyond Nuclear staffers Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps met with a federal review board of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 8, 2011 to supplement its April 13th petition calling for the suspension of the operation of the 23 Fukushima-style General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors in the US.

Gunter’s presentation focused on evidence that the Fukushima containments have failed along with the experimental vents designed to save them and implications for the US Mark I reactors. Kamps elaborated on the implications of the severe fuel damage in Fukushima’s elevated nuclear waste storage pools and implications for the same vulnerable pools in the US Mark I.

Access via the NRC telephone bridge line attracted such “unprecedented” public interest that the line crashed, delaying the start of the meeting by 30 minutes to install more lines.

Become a co-petitioner to NRC and support the Beyond Nuclear call for the suspension of the 23 Fukushima-style reactors operating in the United States. 

If you love this planet, tell your friends, too. 

Small module reactors not necessarily safer or more economical

A meeting of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on June 7 questioned the US Department of Energy on why a program to manufacture and export small modular nuclear reactors is not yet up and running. Instead of concerning itself with the fact that the rest of the world - and Germany especially - is poised to overtake the US in renewable energy manufacture and deployment, Senators focused on another nuclear non-started. Ed Lyman, physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, testified, pointing out that smaller reactors were not necessarily safer or more economical. Read Lyman's testimony here.

Floods threaten Nebraska nuclear power plant

Thanks to Harold One Feather for alerting anti-nuclear list serves to an emergency declaration due to flooding on the Missouri River at the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Omaha, Nebraska, as reported by the Associated Press on KWQC t.v. news as well as The Omaha World Herald newspaper. However, floods have threatened Nebraskan nuclear power plants on the Missouri River before -- as at Cooper nuclear power plant in July 1993. Regarding the emergency flooding situation, the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) -- owner and operator of the Fort Calhoun Station (FCS) nuclear power plant -- has announced: "FCS has been offline for a planned refueling outage since April 9. If river levels are too high, the plant will remain shut down, and will not be restarted until conditions make it safe to do so...In anticipation of higher water levels, employees are taking additional actions to protect the plant and property, including building a berm around other buildings in the plant." OPPD has posted videos of emergency sand bagging operations at Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant on June 1st (note how close flood waters have already mounted, lapping at the brink of the electrical transmission switchyard), as well as of emergency inflatable damming and active flood water pumping on June 4th. Given all the audible wind in both videos, one has to wonder why OPPD doesn't simply generate its electricity from Nebraska's rich Great Plains wind resource -- clean and safe and ever more cost effective -- as opposed to dirty, dangerous, and expensive nuclear power. Flooding at Nebraska's nukes is a reminder, in the aftermath of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, that it doesn't take an earthquake and tsunami to trigger a nuclear catastrophe -- a flood on the Missouri River could "do the trick." Ironically, the Cooper atomic reactor is a General Electric Boiling Water Reactor of the Mark 1 design -- identical to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4.

Anti-nuke march in shadows of Point Beach and Kewaunee to commemorate Chernobyl's 25th amidst Fukushima catastrophe

As local Fox t.v. reports, on April 23rd Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear joined Nukewatch of Wisconsin and other Badger State allies for a seven mile march from Kewaunee nuclear power plant, down the Lake Michigan shoreline, to the Point Beach nuclear power plant to mark Chernobyl's 25th anniversary amidst the on-going Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. In recent years, the two reactors at Point Beach represented a majority of the "red findings" issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- the agency's highest safety violation -- amongst the entire 104 reactor U.S. fleet. Similarly, Kewaunee had a majority of the NRC's "yellow findings," the second highest safety violation, more than the rest of the industry's 104 operating reactors combined. Kamps called for solar, wind, and efficiency to replace the three reactors, on the edge of the Great Lakes, 20% of the world's surface fresh water, drinking water supply to 40 million people in the U.S., Canada, and a large number of Native American and First Nations communities.