ABC News Says They Made An Error In Reporting Fort Calhoun Evacuation, Demands Story Be Scrubbed From Internet

Alexander Higgins Blog

ABC says they made an error in reporting that an evacuation zone was issued around the Fort Calhoun Nuclear power plant and have since redacted the story and they have now issued a take-down order demanding that all references to the story be removed from the internet.

After ABC news initially reported that a 10 mile mandatory evacuation zone was issued at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear plant the story was scrubbed from all online news sites.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/28/fort-calhoun-nuclear-plant-underw…
ABC news has since contacted me telling me they made an error in reporting the story and they redacted the story.

They have ordered that story be taken down from YouTube apparently under the impression that I posted the copyrighted video on my YouTube account which I did not.

They have also ordered that I remove the story and any references to it from Twitter and anywhere else that the story was online.

Unfortunately, I can not help them in removing the video from YouTube but will do my best to get the word out that they made an error in reporting the story and are ordering that it be scrubbed from the Internet.

Here is the message that was left on my answering machine.

 

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant Underwater- References of 10 Mile Mandatory Evacuation Area Scrubbed From News Sites

The head of the NRC toured the Fort Calhoun Nuclear plant which is now underwater. A 10 mile evacuation around the plant has been ordered, but all references of the evacuation have been scrubbed from online news sites.

Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant Main Building Underwater, 10 Mile Mandatory Evacuation Area

The head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a Nebraska nuclear power plant is safe from flood waters a day after a protective berm failed leaving key parts of the facility surrounded by overflow from the Missouri River. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko visited the Fort Calhoun plant Monday, and a commission spokeswoman said he found the plant to be in safe condition. Federal officials will continue to oversee steps to control flood waters from the swollen Missouri and plan to conduct a follow-up inspection. “We do have robust systems in place to protect public health and safety,” NRC spokeswoman Lara Uselding said. Mr. Jaczko’s visit came 8 hours after a protective berm collapsed early Sunday, causing water to surround the containment buildings and key electrical equipment at the Fort Calhoun plant. Local officials in towns around the plant, which is 19 miles north of Omaha, weren’t concerned about safety at the plant Monday, saying operators there had the situation under control. The plant is operated by the Omaha Public Power District. Rod Storm, the city administrator of Blair, said officials in the town of about 8,000 people near the plant are more worried about keeping the city’s wastewater treatment facility running so it can pump about 10 million gallons of water a day to local industries. The facility sits on the bank of the Missouri River. “We’ve got a lot to worry about and the event at the nuclear facility is the least of our worries,” Mr. Storm said.

These days we don’t hear too much about the ailing nuclear reactors in Fukushima Japan, but make no mistake the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant remains very serious. Now the U.S. is dealing with it’s own potentially serious nuclear situation in Nebraska. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said the breach in the 2,000-foot inflatable berm around the Fort Calhoun station occurred around 1:25 a.m. local time. More than 2 feet of water rushed in around containment buildings and electrical transformers at the 478-megawatt facility located 20 miles north of Omaha. Reactor shutdown cooling and spent-fuel pool cooling were unaffected, the NRC said. The plant, operated by the Omaha Public Power District, has been off line since April for refueling. Crews activated emergency diesel generators after the breach, but restored normal electrical power by Sunday afternoon, the NRC said. Buildings at the Fort Calhoun plant are watertight, the agency said. It noted that the cause of the berm breach is under investigation.

But a Google news search for 10 mile fort calhoun evacuation shows no results about the evacuation, only articles talking about how hard it would be to evacuate a 10 mile radius around many of the US nuclear plants.

There also has been an Fort Calhoun evacuation map posted on the (NEMA) Nebraska Emergency Management Website. However, Google shows that it has been there since at least the 17th of June and that indicates officials saw this coming.

 
The page also has detailed instructions on how to evacuate away from a radiation plume from different parts of the state.

Salt TV reports that the water is now up to 2 feet high around the sides of the building, but the NRC says there is no danager.

Jaczko toured the station 19 miles north of Omaha to see the flooding at the nation’s smallest nuclear power plant, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The river was more than 2 feet up around the building with months of flood conditions remaining.
“It’s certainly clear that this is not an issue that’s going to go away anytime soon,” Jaczko said.

Yes… this NRC.

Japan’s Nuclear Fallout Unlikely to Reach the U.S., NRC Official Says

The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expressed confidence on Monday that there’s little chance of radioactivity from Japan’s badly damaged nuclear power plants reaching the United States.
Source: The National Journal

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