The owners of the flood-threatened Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska assert that everything is under control.

But just to be sure, they are allowing the plant's management to skip the normal procurement process and buy anything it might need to protect Fort Calhoun from the still-rising waters of the flooded Missouri River.

World Nuclear News today reports that the Omaha Public Power District, which owns and operates the Fort Calhoun plant, issued that directive June 16. In a statement, the public utility said that high volumes of water released from up-river by the Army Corps of Engineers "continue to pose a threat to the electric system and generation facilities along the river."

Yesterday, a second Nebraska nuclear plant facing rising floodwaters was put under a "notification of unusual event," (as the Fort Calhoun plant was on June 6th). The second plant, the Cooper Nuclear Station, is located south of Omaha and owned by the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). A "notification of unusual event" is the least urgent of four classifications that can be declared in a nuclear emergency.

Rain is forecast for the Greater Omaha area for the next three days.