Fort Calhoun nuclear storage called safe by OPPD

[Omaha Steve]

The spent nuclear fuel stored on an elevated concrete pad on the Omaha Public Power District property that hosted the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station is safe from the flooding of 2019, OPPD officials say.

OPPD is decommissioning and deconstructing the former nuclear power plant north of Omaha that saw significant flooding in 2011. Many of the plant’s items that came into contact with radiation during its operations have been removed from the site for safe storage, said Cris Averett, an OPPD spokesman.

The parts that remain have been protected from Missouri River floodwaters with artificial barriers and sandbags, officials said. The water currently is about two feet lower than in 2011, when the site was flooded for months, Averett said. The concrete pad for the spent fuel was built five feet higher than the peak floodwaters reached in 2011, OPPD says.

The fuel sits inside steel-lined, air-tight, waterproof concrete casings on the pad.

FULL story: https://www.omaha.com/weather/fort-calhoun-nuclear-storage-called-safe-by-oppd/article_97a19362-ccd8-51c7-8a3e-61c6ca3dcd02.html