November 3, 2014
Thousands take part in drill around Ishikawa nuclear plant
During a nuclear evacuation drill held in the town of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sunday, a man on a stretcher is carried out of a home for senior citizens. The two-day drill, which will end Monday, is being held on the assumption that the nearby Shika nuclear power plant, operated by Hokuriku Electric Power Co., finds it cannot cool its reactors after a strong earthquake hits the area. |
KYODO
JIJI
Drills were held Sunday and Monday to respond to a severe accident at the Shika nuclear plant in Ishikawa Prefecture.
The drill assumed that Hokuriku Electric Power Co.’s power plant had been hit at 8 a.m. Sunday by an earthquake measuring upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, had lost its external power supply and was leaking radioactive material.
At 1:30 p.m. the government announced a nuclear state of emergency because water supplies to the plant had been cut and the reactors were no longer being cooled.
Government officials ordered residents within 5 km of the plant to evacuate and instructed them to take iodine tablets in advance to reduce the effects of radiation exposure. Residents within 30 km were ordered to stay indoors.
At a simulated meeting of the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the government would act to prevent the accident from getting out of control and ensure people’s safety.
Situation reports were submitted to the meeting in the prime minister’s office through a teleconference system linking such places as the town and the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
This was the second drill of its kind since the March 2011 disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
The government conducted the first one last year at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.
No details regarding the scenario are told to participants in advance of the two-day drill to make the situation closer to the real thing.
Some 3,700 people took part, including about 1,000 residents near the plant and participants from a variety of government agencies, including the Cabinet Office, the NRA, the Defense Ministry and the National Police Agency.
Local governments in not only Ishikawa Prefecture but also Toyama Prefecture, which is within 30 km of the plant, also took part.
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