Many people were scrambling at the NRC to cover up the full extent of the damage at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant following an electrical fire that stopped the cooling system to the spent-fuel rods. The NRC originally reported that the fire was detected in a switchgear room at 9:30 am, by declaring a Notification of Unusual Event. Automated fire suppression systems activated as expected and the fire was confirmed out at 10:20 a.m.Thursday this was updated to an Alert, with no recognition by MSM, because the cooling systems were down for multiple hours.
The fire impacted two pumps, causing them to go offline. One pump was returned to service after almost 2 hours had elapsed, and the second pump required much more time until later in the day. This is extremely alarming if you also look at the report filed by the OPPD (Omaha Public Power District) just last month after inspecting the Fort Calhoun Station
