Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Hmm: Russian & Pakistani Media are Needed for Us to Know of News Blackout on (Nearly) Flooded Nuclear Plant

Something is dead wrong when the nuclear-promoting Barack Obama presidency is succeeding in making us rely first and foremost on media reports from Russia and Pakistan to learn about the near-flooding of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska.
Another case showing that we need a Green Party to advocate clean, renewable energy, instead of risky nuclear plants as the corporate president Obama does.

Here's the news thumbnail from Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" on the near-disastrous nuke plant flooding:
Massive flooding along the Missouri River has put two nuclear plants in Nebraska on alert. On Sunday, the Cooper Nuclear Station declared a low-level emergency as the Missouri River threatened to flood the nuclear power facility. Authorities say the plant, which is about 70 miles south of Omaha, will have to close down if the river rises another three inches. Meanwhile, the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant, located about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been shut down since April 9, in part due to flooding.

Here's the lead material from the Huntington, WV story, itself relying on Russian sources:
US Accused of News Blackout on Nebraska Nuke Plant

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 20:53 Special to HuntingtonNews.Net

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers (from a Russian Agency Report)

A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant [photo top left] located in Nebraska.

According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area.

Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.”

Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an “outright falsehood” as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the “events” occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the “Level 4” emergency category of an “accident with local consequences” thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.

Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of “negligible release of nuclear gasses” related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for “political purposes” it risks a “serious blowback” from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.

Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that “the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is “unacceptable” and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.”
Read more at the Huntington News source page:
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/5415

And watch Thom Hartmann's report on his "The Big Picture" TV show at Russia Today at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NidxieeUl4&feature=player_embedded#at=208
(Evoking Gil Scott-Heron ["We Almost Lost Detroit"], someone linked this video at DemocraticUnderground.com with the phrase, "We Almost Lost Nebraska." The plant is near the borders of Missouri and Kansas as well.)

Pakistan's "The Nation" first broke this story, June 18, last Saturday, at
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/18-Jun-2011/US-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-Nebraska-Nuclear-Plant-report.

Thank you, Pakistani and Russian media, for leading us out of the dark.

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