Electrical Fire Knocks Out Spent Fuel Cooling at Nebraska Nuclear Plant

Thursday, June 9, 2011 - 17:30 in Physics & Chemistry

A fire in an electrical switch room on Tuesday briefly knocked out cooling for a pool holding spent nuclear fuel at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant outside Omaha, Neb., plant officials said.The safety of deep pools used to store used radioactive fuel at nuclear plants has been an issue since the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in March. If the cooling water a pool is lost, the used nuclear fuel could catch fire and release radiation. [More]

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