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Empresas y finanzas

NRC tracking flooding at two Nebraska nuclear power plants


    (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Wednesday it was closely monitoring conditions along the Missouri River, where floodwaters were rising at Nebraska Public Power District's Cooper Nuclear Station and Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska.

    "Cooper is operating at full power. Fort Calhoun shut down for a refueling outage on April 7 and operators have decided not to restart the plant until flood waters recede," the release said.

    The NRC said that both plants had made extensive preparations to protect the sites against rising floodwaters.

    Flooding had forced evacuation of a northwest Missouri town because of two breaches in Missouri River levees and expectations of more rain.

    Flooding could complicate the restart of the Fort Calhoun plant as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects record water release from the federal dams along the Missouri River to continue until mid-August, keeping river levels high.

    (Reporting by Naveen Arul in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)