Floods spur wild rumors of nuclear plant perils in Nebraska | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com "The sight of two Nebraska nuclear plants fighting off a severely swollen Missouri River this week has brewed a furious, Internet-fueled scare that warns of impending disasters of a scale similar to the tsunami-stricken Fukushima plant in Japan. Operators of the Fort Calhoun and Cooper plants and the federal agency that regulate them say the reactors are flood-proof, are in no danger of leaking, and extra precautions have been taken. "The rumors have been as difficult to combat as the rising floodwaters," said Victor Dricks, spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Much of the information on blogs, YouTube and social media has been inaccurate, the NRC reported. A particularly inflammatory report originated on an English-language online newspaper based in Pakistan. The article claims that a Russian nuclear energy agency has obtained information about a June 7 accident at the Fort Calhoun plant near Blair, Neb., which it described as "one of the worst" in U.S. history. The report goes on to say President Barack Obama has ordered news organizations not to report the accident and imposed a "no-fly" zone over the plant because of radiation leaks from "a near catastrophic meltdown." Several callers to The Des Moines Register this week suggested the newspaper and other "mainstream media" organizations were participating in a conspiracy to cover up news of a looming nuclear disaster. Most cited the Pakistani website as the source of their information. A Google search on the term "Nebraska nuclear plants" returned 1,171 hits for sites discussing the incidents."
I understand where they cover-up theories are coming from, as even the local media here, let alone the national media, hasn't talked about the plant hardly at all. But really, it's all quite ridiculous. The plants appear to have taken appropriate measures to avoid a disaster of any magnitude. If they are leaking a lot of radiation, I guess I'm already screwed...
People don't seem to understand that a big difference between these ones and the Japan ones is that in Japan, the earthquake ruptured some of the tanks plus the power was gone and backup power was gone, preventing the cooling mechanism to turn on. PRetty sure that's not the case in Missouri.
