Quote:

---

The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant's defenses include a water-filled berm 8 feet tall that encircles other parts of the plant. NRC inspectors concluded that at flooding levels above 1,008 feet, the plant "would experience a loss of offsite power and loss of intake structure" and water pumps providing essential cooling water to the plant. In that case, "the plant would be incapable of reaching cold shutdown" with normal operations -- a fundamental safety requirement imposed by the NRC. The commission's Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, issued a notice of violation against the plant on Oct. 6 last year, finding that the issues were of "substantial importance" to the plant's safety.

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/06/24/24climatewire-a-nuclear-plants
-flood-defenses-trigger-a-ye-95418.html?pagewanted=1

---

Quote:

---

Los Alamos Fire: Perimeter of Nuclear Lab Set Ablaze BY FIREMEN

Firefighters working against the wildfire that surrounds the nuclear lab in Los Alamos, N.M., have set part of the perimeter of the lab ablaze in hopes of starving the wildfire of fuel in the event it heads back toward the stash of radioactive material stored inside the lab.

After creating a blackened ring that now circles the lab, crews are betting that starting fires to stop them is a gamble that will pay off.

But environmental officials warn that the danger is not over. Along with what's actually on lab property, there is concern about what's in the canyons that surround the sprawling complex. Nuclear tests were performed in the canyons dating back to the 1940s; so-called "legacy contaminations."

"The trees have grown up during that timeframe, and the soil can also be contaminated. If they get heated and that stuff goes air borne, then we are concerned," Rita Bates of the New Mexico Environment Department said.

One graduate student armed with a Geiger counter took to YouTube to show there was no shortage of metal or radioactivity.

The fire, which has burned more than 90,000 acres, has led to a mass evacuation, and the city of Los Alamos remains a ghost town. Most of its 12,000 residents were evacuated Monday, with some leaving their sprinklers on to protect their homes.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/los-alamos-fire-perimeter-nuclear-lab-set-abl
aze/story?id=13964006

---