The plant's parking lot is among the areas flooded, requiring plant workers to navigate a catwalk to reach the plant.  The other plant, Cooper Nuclear Station, sits on higher ground and continues to operate.  NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko is scheduled to visit the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday morning.  Although an inflatable water-filled structure called an aqua berm surrounding the plant was punctured by machinery early Sunday morning, key areas of the facility are not in danger of being flooded, the NRC and the owner of the Fort Calhoun plant said.  "The plant is still protected. This was an additional, a secondary, level of protection that we had put up," said Mike Jones, a spokesman for the Omaha Public Power District. "The plant remains protected to the level it would have been if the aqua berm had not been added."  Plant workers briefly switched to diesel backup generators to keep nuclear fuel at the site cool because water had gotten too close to electrical transformers, Jeff Hanson, a spokesman for the utility, said Monday. The plant was again drawing power from the electrical grid, he said.  In addition to the berm, authorities have put in place floodgates, sandbags and other barriers to help protect the facility. As precautions, workers have been given satellite phones and extra food is stockpiled at the plant according to the NRC.  Plant managers also have brought in additional diesel fuel should the site lose electricity, according to the NRC.  The aqua berm -- an 8-foot-tall, water-filled berm, 16 feet wide at its base -- surrounded the reactor containment structure and auxiliary buildings, according to the NRC.  A representative of the manufacturer is at the plant helping assess whether the berm can be repaired, Hanson said.  With or without the berm, the chances of floodwater getting into the building where the core is kept are almost zero, said Dave Van Der Kamp, with the Nebraska Public Power District.
The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected Monday to visit a Nebraska power plant surrounded by Missouri River floodwater.The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, about 20 miles north of