Surprise emergency drill held at ‘nuclear island’ Kalpakkam

Chennai, Oct 21 (IANS) More than 8,000 persons were involved in a surprise exercise for checking the emergency preparedness of the atomic power units in Kalpakkam on Monday, an official statement said.

The Department of Atomic Energy’s statement said the objective of the exercise was to check the preparedness of various atomic power units in Kalpakkam, about 70 km from here, in meeting any emergency situation.

The exercise tested different aspects like sheltering of site personnel in their respective units, mock decontamination of ‘injured’ persons, evacuation of non-essential personnel out of the site, mock decontamination of contaminated vehicles within the site and administration of chocolates (notionally in the place of stable iodine tablets) to personnel as protective action.

As a part of the exercise, about 3,500 persons were evacuated by buses and the remaining by their own vehicles in two hours and the entire exercise was completed in three-and-half hours, the statement said.

The exercise was supervised by M.Srinivas, Station Director, Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) who is also the Site Emergency Director.