NRC confirms Fort Calhoun reactor restart plan

Fri Sep 2, 2011 11:16pm GMT

HOUSTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission confirmed on Friday the many steps operators at the
478-megawatt Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska must take
before restarting the unit in the next few months, the agency
said.

Fort Calhoun has been shut since April 9. It shut for a
month-long refueling, but the Omaha Public Power District was
forced to extend the outage when rising flood water from the
Missouri River surrounded the site in early June.

OPPD was forced to take extraordinary measures to keep the
plant from flooding while maintaining key safety equipment and
access to the plant.

The NRC letter outlines a post-flooding recovery road map
for actions OPPD agreed to do before the plant can restart,
focusing on six areas: site restoration; plant systems and
equipment; equipment reliability; design and licensing basis;
emergency planning and security, the NRC said.

"Our intention is that we will be able to restart in the
coming months, however, we will not compromise on safety for
the public or our workers," said Dave Bannister, OPPD's chief
nuclear officer, in a release.

Earlier this week, Fort Calhoun canceled the emergency
status it declared June 6 as spring and summer flooding on the
Missouri worsened.

Conditions around the plant are now improving, a spokesman
said.

The Missouri River near the plant has dropped to 1,002.5
feet (305.6 meters) above mean sea level, nearly two feet below
the level that forced the plant to extend its outage and nearly
five feet below the peak river level reached.
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PLANT BACKGROUND/TIMELINE
STATE: Nebraska
County: Washington
TOWN: Fort Calhoun, about 65 miles (100 km) northeast
of Lincoln, the state capital
OPERATOR: Omaha Public Power District
OWNER(S): Omaha Public Power District
CAPACITY: 478 MW
UNIT(S) : Combustion Engineering two-loop pressurized water
reactor
FUEL: Nuclear
DISPATCH: Baseload
COST: $754.65 million (2007 USD) according to the U.S.
EIA
---------------------------
TIMELINE:
1966 - Unit commenced operations
1973 - Unit began commercial production
2003 - A 20-year license extension was granted
Aug 2033 - Unit license expires
(Reporting by Eileen O'Grady; editing by Andre Grenon)

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