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Site Description Report

Fort Calhoun Station

9610 Power Lane

Blair, NE 68008

March 2, 2009

1.0 Background and Objectives

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of developing 

316(b) cooling water intake structure requirements that reflect the best technology

available (BTA) for minimizing adverse environmental impact for all existing 

power plants and manufacturing facilities. As part of this process, EPA staff is 

visiting electric generators and manufacturers to better understand the cooling 

water intake structure (CWIS) technologies in use at facilities, including the sitespecific characteristics of each facility and how these affect the selection and 

performance of CWIS technologies. EPA is also visiting facilities to better 

understand cooling water use and specific issues or technologies that can affect 

316(b) compliance. As part of its site visit to the North Omaha Station, EPA also 

collected information on Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) Fort Calhoun 

Station.

2.0 Facility Description

Fort Calhoun is located about 5 miles northwest of the town of Fort Calhoun in 

eastern Nebraska. The facility operates under NPDES permit NE0000418; the 

permit was renewed on July 1, 2007.

3.0 Electricity Generation and Transmission

Fort Calhoun is a 492 MW nuclear generating station with one reactor. It began 

operations in 1973. The capacity utilization rate (CUR) is approximately 85%.

A major outage is scheduled every 18 months, and minor screen maintenance is 

conducted on a frequent basis.

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The transmission system is owned by OPPD but is operated by a different 

business unit of the company.

4.0 Cooling Water System and Intake Structure

Fort Calhoun withdraws once-through cooling water from a CWIS on the 

shoreline of the Missouri River (at river mile 645.8). Water passes through a 

trash rack and then into 6 intake bays; each intake bay has a coarse mesh (3/8”) 

 

1 Materials provided by facility representatives noted that all 6 screens are overhauled during each outage. 

The cost per screen is nearly $80,000.
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traveling screen and each pair of bays feeds a circulating water pump. There are 

three circulating pumps, each with a capacity of 172.8 million gallons per day

(mgd, or 120,000 gallons per minute [gpm]). In total, the facility’s design intake 

flow (DIF) is 518.4 mgd and the average actual intake flow (AIF) is 451 mgd.

The design through-screen velocity ranged is 1.75 feet per second (fps).2

5.0 Impingement and Entrainment Information

Facility representatives noted that a 2mm screen would have clogging problems 

and likely affect the facility’s ability to maintain safe water levels.

6.0 Cooling Tower Feasibility

Facility representatives have not considered closed-cycle cooling for Fort 

Calhoun. They noted a number of problems associated with retrofitting a closedcycle recirculating system (CCRS): limited land availability and potential 

conflicts with the NRC operating license.

7.0 Debris Handling

Fort Calhoun has significant problems with debris, particularly with gravel in the 

intake water due to intake’s location on the bedrock bottom of river. Materials 

provided by facility representatives noted that current debris loading poses a 

substantial challenge for maintaining sufficient water flow; any additional 

operational challenges might result in nuclear safety concerns. In addition to the 

screen overhauls which incur an annualized cost of approximately $315,000, the 

facility must also clean its condenser once per year, at a cost of approximately

$253,000.

Facility representatives noted that Fort Calhoun is considering installing a weir 

wall similar to that in place at Cooper Nuclear Station.3

The facility is also able to recirculate warm water to the intake in winter to 

address icing concerns.

8.0 Repowering/Future Uses

Fort Calhoun is currently performing an uprating; the facility recently installed a 

new, larger condenser. Facility representatives noted that a design criterion was 

to minimize the time that circulation pumps are offline, as this allows suspended 

sediment to settle out in the condenser.

 

2 The through-screen velocity at normal water level is 1.63 fps; at low water, it is 2.64 fps and at high water 

0.99 fps.

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See the site visit report for Cooper Station.
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9.0 Cooling Ponds

There are no cooling ponds onsite.

10.0 Ownership

OPPD is a public utility that is owned by the state of Nebraska. The entire state is 

supplied by public power.

11.0 316(a)

The permits for all OPPD facilities have thermal discharge limits; facility

representatives noted that the most troublesome time of year for meeting these 

limits was in the summer, when the ambient water temperatures are highest. They

added that they have not had any problems meeting state water quality standards, 

though.

12.0 Ash Handling

Fort Calhoun does not use coal as a fuel and therefore has no ash ponds.

13.0 Air Emissions Controls

EPA did not collect any information about air controls at this site.

14.0 Additional Information

Materials provided by the facility indicate that they will be testing Passavant 

Geiger screens at Fort Calhoun.

Attachments

Attachment A Fort Calhoun Description

Attachment B Engineering Diagrams

Attachment C Information on Debris
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Attachment A—Fort Calhoun Description

Please see DCN 10-6519A accompanying this document

Attachment B—Engineering Diagrams

Please see DCN 10-6519B accompanying this document

Attachment C—Information on Debris

Please see DCN 10-6519C accompanying this document