The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station is a weird landmark if you’re driving along the Missouri River north of Omaha. It’s small. In fact, for a long time, it was the smallest operating commercial nuclear reactor in the United States. While most nuclear plants are these massive, sprawling industrial complexes that look like they could power a whole time-traveling DeLorean fleet, Fort Calhoun always felt a bit more... modest. But don't let the size fool you. This place has a history that is surprisingly dramatic, involving record-breaking floods, regulatory headaches, and a decommissioning process that is literally changing how we think about "retiring" a power plant.
Honestly, most people only remember the plant because of the 2011 floods. You might have seen the photos. It looked like an island. The Missouri River had basically swallowed the surrounding land, and the facility was protected by nothing but an "aqua-dam"—essentially a giant rubber tube filled with water. It was tense.
The Little Reactor That Could (Until It Couldn't)
The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station officially started its life in 1973. It was operated by the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), and for decades, it was a reliable workhorse for Nebraska’s energy grid. It used a Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor (PWR). This thing had a generating capacity of about 478 megawatts. To put that in perspective, some of the bigger units at plants like Palo Verde or Peach Bottom can pump out over 1,300 megawatts. It was a tiny engine in a big state.
So, why did it close?
🔗 Read more: Dyson Hot and Cool Filter Maintenance: What Your Purifier Isn't Telling You
It wasn't just one thing. It was a "perfect storm" of economics and bad luck. First, you have the price of natural gas. When fracking made natural gas incredibly cheap, small nuclear plants like Fort Calhoun simply couldn't compete on price. Then there was the 2011 flood. While the plant stayed safe, the event triggered a massive regulatory review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The plant was already down for a refueling outage when the water rose, and it stayed offline for nearly three years as OPPD dealt with a mountain of safety upgrades and inspections.
The costs just kept ballooning. By 2016, the OPPD board had to make a tough call. They realized that keeping this small, aging facility running was going to cost their customers hundreds of millions of dollars more than just buying power elsewhere or investing in renewables. They voted to shut it down. On October 24, 2016, the breakers were opened for the last time.
The Reality of Decommissioning
When a nuclear plant stops making electricity, it doesn't just "go away." You can't just lock the front door and walk off. Decommissioning is a decades-long, multi-billion dollar headache.
Initially, OPPD looked at a method called SAFSTOR. This is basically "nuclear hibernation." You take the fuel out, lock the building, and let the radiation levels decay naturally for 50 or 60 years before you start tearing it down. But they changed their minds. They pivoted to DECON—the fast-track version. They wanted the site cleaned up sooner rather than later.
- Spent Fuel Management: All that radioactive fuel is currently sitting in "dry casks" on-site. These are massive concrete and steel cylinders. Since the federal government still hasn't opened a central repository (like the long-delayed Yucca Mountain), those casks are going to be there for a while.
- Tearing Down the "Hot" Stuff: Workers have to systematically dismantle the reactor vessel and the internal components. This is high-stakes surgery. They often do it underwater or using remote-controlled robots because the radiation levels are too high for humans to hang out nearby for long.
- Site Restoration: The goal is to get the land back to "greenfield" status. Eventually, you’d never even know a nuclear reactor was there.
It’s expensive. We're talking about a fund that had to grow to over $900 million just to cover the costs.
The Missouri River Problem
The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station's relationship with the Missouri River was always complicated. The 2011 flood was a 100-year event, or so they said. But with changing weather patterns, the risk profile for river-side plants has shifted. When the flood hit, the plant was surrounded by water that reached 1,006 feet above sea level.
There was a moment in June 2011 when a small fire in an electrical switchgear room caused a brief loss of cooling for the spent fuel pool. It wasn't a "meltdown" scenario—the water only heated up a few degrees—but it was enough to make the NRC sit up and take notice. It highlighted how vulnerable these sites can be to "external events" that go beyond what the original 1960s designers imagined.
📖 Related: Why OS X Yosemite 10.10 Still Matters Years Later
What Most People Get Wrong About the Shutdown
There’s a common misconception that Fort Calhoun was "broken" or "dangerous" when it closed. That's not really the case. It was actually in decent shape toward the end, but it was "economically broken."
In the energy world, size matters. Large plants have economies of scale. You need a certain number of security guards, engineers, and administrators regardless of whether your reactor is 400MW or 1200MW. For Fort Calhoun, those overhead costs were spread across a much smaller output. It was like trying to pay a mortgage on a mansion while only having the income of someone living in a studio apartment.
Why Nebraska Shifted Gears
Nebraska is unique. It’s the only state in the U.S. where every single resident is served by a publicly owned utility (like OPPD or NPPD). This means the "owners" are the customers. When OPPD decided to close the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station, they were answering to the people of Omaha. They decided to lean harder into wind energy and natural gas "peaker" plants to fill the gap.
Moving Forward: What You Can Actually Do
If you’re interested in the future of energy or the legacy of these sites, there are a few practical ways to stay informed or get involved.
- Monitor the NRC Public Records: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission keeps a "reading room" (ADAMS) where every inspection report and decommissioning update for Fort Calhoun is posted. If you want to see exactly how they are cutting up the reactor, the data is there.
- Check the OPPD Board Meetings: Since it's a public utility, their board meetings are open to the public. They still discuss the decommissioning budget and the long-term plan for the casks on-site.
- Understand the "Cask" Situation: Most people don't realize that even after a plant is "gone," the spent fuel stays. You can look up the "Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation" (ISFSI) guidelines to understand how those dry casks are monitored. They are incredibly robust—designed to survive plane crashes and earthquakes—but they are a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future.
- Follow the Carbon Math: If you care about climate change, look at Nebraska's carbon intensity before and after 2016. Replacing a zero-carbon nuclear plant with other sources is a complex balancing act. Some experts, like those at the Clean Air Task Force, argue that losing plants like Fort Calhoun makes hitting climate goals much harder.
The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station is now a skeleton of its former self. The iconic containment dome is a reminder of an era when we thought nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter." Today, it serves as a massive case study in how to retire a nuclear giant gracefully—or at least, as gracefully as a billion-dollar demolition project can be.