Nuclear plant hosts tsunami drill

Apr 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dave Rogers The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.

 

What would happen if an earthquake took place near the Seabrook nuclear power plant? How would personnel there and emergency management officials from the 23 communities in two states within the emergency planning district respond to such a threat?

More than a year after a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power multi-reactor complex in Japan, that very unlikely scenario was played out earlier this week as part of a graded drill conducted by NextEra Energy Seabrook.

With representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in attendance, NextEra officials ran drills that tested the readiness of all 23 communities, 17 in New Hampshire and six in Massachusetts.

At roughly 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, all communities received a fake bulletin: An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale was recorded 1 mile off the New Hampshire coast. The quake does not generate a tsunami but does cause a coolant leak of 40 gallons per minute and the loss of two protective barriers at the power plant, according to Newburyport's Emergency Management Department.

The event started as an "alert" but quickly escalated to a "site area emergency," followed by a general emergency," as a simulated radiation release is reported. The release prompts a full evacuation of the area.

NextEra Energy Seabrook spokesman Al Griffith said the graded exercises, conducted every two years, identifies strengths and points out areas of improvement for each of the communities. The graded exercises are in addition to the three or four drills the power plant conducts yearly.

Each community has a different set of responsibilities that were tested and then graded, Griffith said. The results were expected to be revealed sometime today at a public meeting in Portsmouth, N.H.

"It's all an attempt for continuous improvement," Griffith said.

For the station itself, staff convened at the state's emergency operations response center in Newington, N.H. There, power plant and state emergency personnel worked behind closed doors coordinating its practiced response to the mock disaster with state emergency offices in Concord, N.H. and Framingham.

Griffith said a media center, replete with phone banks, televisions, Internet connections and live video briefs, was also created to ensure emergency information could be disseminated to the public at a moment's notice.

Newburyport Emergency Management assistant director Don DiGloria said that during the initial alert stage, departments conducted simulated school transfers. Salisbury Beach, Plum Island and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge were closed and waterways cleared for a 10-mile radius. By the end of the day, a full evacuation of all six communities was ordered, and potassium iodide was administered to all residents. Sirens were simulated, and when ordered, emergency management officials abandoned their posts and set up alternative sites in a state facility in Tewksbury, according to DiGloria.

"Overall, we did very well to exercise our radiological emergency response plans, but now, FEMA will evaluate all six communities," DiGloria said.

In Amesbury, one of the six Massachusetts communities within the emergency planning area, the drill began Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. with the announcement that an earthquake had rocked the power plant.

Within moments, Emergency Management director Don Swenson sent out a message to volunteers to report to the emergency center, underneath the Ordway Building off School Street. With representatives from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and FEMA observing, Amesbury officials pretended to evacuate schoolchildren and bus them out of town. Private schools and day cares were also alerted. Swenson said the drill ended around 2:30 p.m.

The same scenario took place in neighboring Salisbury, where Emergency Management director Bob Cook and emergency personnel converged at the Lafayette Road center.

"It went very well; all the steps went according to plan, and everything went smoothly," Cook said.

Drills were also conducted in the three other Massachusetts communities in the zone: Merrimac, Newbury and West Newbury.

In Seabrook, emergency management officials met inside the Centennial Drive fire station and turned the station's briefing center into a war room of sorts.

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