*BREAKING* May 16 report foreshadowed yesterday’s “event” at Calhoun nuke plant: Flooding of Intake Structure through penetrations could jeopardize abilty to cool reactor

Facility: FORT CALHOUN
Notification Date: 06/16/2011
Notification Time: 14:46 [ET]
Event Date: 06/16/2011
Event Time: 12:30 [CDT]

Event Text: ADDITIONAL PENETRATION IDENTIFIED FOR MITIGATION DURING WALKDOWN

“Operations identified a potential flooding issue in the Intake Structure 1007 ft. 6 in. level. The area of concern is a the hole in the floor at the 1007 ft. 6 in. level where the relief valve from FP-1A discharge pipe goes through the raw pump bay and discharges into the intake cell. There is one penetration of concern. Flooding through this penetration could have impacted the ability of the station’s Raw Water (RW) pumps to perform their design accident mitigation functions.

“Efforts are in progress to seal the penetration.

“This eight-hour notification is being made pursuant to 10 CFR 50.72 (b)(3)(v).”

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

[link to www.nrc.gov]