So far Ft Calhoun seems to be holding

[nadinbrzezinski]

so far the gerbil seems to remain on the damn wheel. But people wehre is our news media? This story should be like leading and shit, and my IPAD MSNBC app should be sending an alert or two.

This is the worst type problem for the industry. If this happened BEFORE Fuku... I am almost smelling MORE coverage.... but now.. they will do out of their way to cover this up.

Let's just hope the gerbil don't fall off the wheel, but if it does, the industry will follow the exact same pattern as TMI, Chernobyl and Fukushima. We call it a pattern. Oh and no, they cannot be believed at this point.

[gateley]

1. What's going on, Nad? I haven't been on much and when I

get the chance, it's only for a few secs, so what have I missed?

:pals:

:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. The flood wall has failed

per cnn. It is a secondary wall, but...

Also the dry casks are under water... those of us who understand how strong currents in receding waters can be... the best case is that some of them will be moved and not leave the property.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4897163

[flamingdem]

14. oh noooo - they seem too calm about it..

:hi:

[FBaggins]

18. That's the "best case"?

You say that you "understand how strong currents in receding waters can be"... but do you understand how heavy those casks are? Tens of tons of concrete and steel bolted down to thick concrete pads? I wouldn't worry about them going anywhere.

And on what basis do you make that other comment? The story I've read here is that the river levels are only expected to drop very slowly over an extended period of time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. More on this

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110626/NEWS01/110629764#nrc-chief-tours-cooper-plant

and now we are back into the watch what they do, not what they say mode... and hope we get to watch a lot, and not deal with any worst case scenarios.

[gateley]

5. Wow -- thanks. I hadn't heard a peep. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. OS has been on top of this

with local media... you'd think MSNBC would go live.

But, what happens when you have a disaster and nobody reports on it...

[gateley]

10. Then the disaster didn't happen, kind of like a tree falling in a forest... nt

[AndyTiedye]

13. Until People Start Getting Cancer

Then they will all need to go to the hospital, where they will find their Medicare and Medicaid have been cut off
so the government won't get stuck paying for all that expensive treatment. See, they are paying attention.
:grr:

[gateley]

22. I can't help but agree. And when it DOES occur, they won't

take any responsibility or admit it was their fault that the "our sites are totally safe" statements were BS. Or, more importantly, come to the realization that nuclear energy is NOT needed, we have more viable, less LETHAL options. :grr:

[madokie]

4. Not once have they been trustworthy enough to believe a word they say

And I'm talking about the nuclear industry as a whole. sonsabiotches have been lying to us for over 60 years now and will as long as they exist. Once the lies stop that industry won't last a day because if people knew the truth they'd/we'd be in the streets right yesterday and the day before that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Oh we are getting there

and right now BEST case scenario... the wanted posters for missing dry cask containers should be all the fun...

They are heavy... alas flood waters are stronger than people understand.

[SpoonFed]

8. Really?

Casks have been carried away from the plant?

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. No they have not, not yet

but the damn failed, and the place where they are has now water.

[gateley]

11. "No they have not, not yet" -- that they've told us about, anyway. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. knowing someting about flood waters and how they behave

we won't know for a while.

For the record, for those who think it could not happen... water up to my knee at 15 miles per hour is almost good enough to knock me off my feet.

Most people do not realize just how much pressure a water column can place... when flowing during a flood.

And for the record, for many reasons, I hope they stay put or if they move it is in the order of meters... at most.

[TheWraith]

15. Those casks weigh around 280,000 pounds. You really think floodwaters are going to move that? nt

[Sirveri]

16. I think they are chained down to a slab in the ground.

When I went out to Vermont Yankee I thought I saw that, but I'm not 100% sure on what they do at Calhoun. I'm more worried about corrosion than the containers actually getting open from stress, they're pretty hardcore when it comes to impacts.

So far so good though, since they were shut down since April they should be pretty low on I131. But I think we'll be OK here all things considered, issue with fuku #4 was due to earthquake damage to the spent fuel pool, as well as power loss. 4, 5, and 6 were all shut down, so had less issue with decay heat and the resulting hydrogen exposions that hit 1, 2, and 3. Probably have something similar here, though I'm not really sure how they're getting diesel fuel to the plant to keep the backups running. This flood is insane, it's been going for almost a month now. Makes you wonder if the water will ever recede.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. There are many issues indeed

And as I said if all they do is move a couple of meters all is well with the world.

[FBaggins]

23. It turns out that they calculated this years ago.

In researching the "blocked vent" scenario from another thread, I came upon their flood calculations.

The casks aren't expected to move at all until the current is greater than 15 mph over the entire height of the cask.

And, of course, bolting them down to a far larger concrete pad removes even that possibility.

So as I said... they aren't going anywhere.

[FBaggins]

19. They weren't behind the "damn" that failed.

They've been flooded for some time now (at least a week)...

...and aren't going anywhere.

[SpoonFed]

20. In your words...

Oh goody, you found a spelling mistake. Hahahaaha. Hypocrite.

[FBaggins]

21. Lol!

In once case, the only substance of the post was that a spelling error had been found.

In this case, the substance of the post was that the spelling error was the smallest mistake.

There's a difference. There's precisely zero chance of those spent fuel casks drifiting away as a few feet of flooding subsides.