Nebraska Public Power District declares “unusual event” at Cooper Nuclear Station after hydrogen leak
Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) declared a “Notification of Unusual Event” (NOUE) Tuesday at its Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, Nebraska due to a hydrogen leak into a main plant area.
A maintenance crew working on the non-nuclear system discovered the leak. NPPD responded to the leak and notified the appropriate local, county, state, and federal agencies.
NPPD said in a press release that the plant is stable and continues to operate. There is currently no threat to the public.
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) defines NOUE as events that are “in progress or have occurred which indicate a potential degradation of the level of safety of the plant or indicate a security threat to facility protection has been initiated.”
If placed on a scale of one to four where one is the least serious level of an emergency and four is the most serious, a NOUE would equal a one, NPPD said.
