Nuclear disaster drill in Kagoshima more realistic

October 12, 2013

Kagoshima holds nuclear disaster drill

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131012_20.html

People in Japan's southern prefecture of Kagoshima held their first nuclear disaster drill since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March of 2011.

About 130 organizations and some 3,300 residents took part in the 2-day exercise, which ends on Saturday.

The drill was based on a scenario that the cooling system at the No. 2 reactor at the prefecture's Sendai nuclear power plant had malfunctioned.

Residents near the plant began evacuating upon receiving the order from the government.

A new guideline for dealing with nuclear disasters states that people living within a 5-kilometer radius of a nuclear plant must immediately leave their homes after an accident to minimize radiation exposure.

Residents on Koshiki Islands who live within a 30-kilometer radius of the plant also held evacuation drills. Their scenario was hypothetical radiation levels exceeding the limit at the island's monitoring posts.

They moved to a port town more than 30 kilometers from the plant to board a Japan Coast Guard patrol ship.

Oct. 12, 2013 - Updated 14:33 UTC

October 11, 2013

Nuclear disaster drill aims for more realism

Kyodo

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/11/national/nuclear-disaster-drill-aims-for-more-realism/#.Ulj3PVM0_9k

The government on Friday kicked off a two-day nuclear evacuation drill — its first since the 2011 Fukushima No. 1 power plant disaster — with the aim of making the exercise more realistic than its usual scripted rehearsals.

The drill is based on a scenario in which an earthquake causes an accident at one of the two reactors at the Sendai power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, resulting in the release of radioactive substances and orders to evacuate.

The exercise is intended to test the effectiveness of the nation’s new nuclear disaster mitigation guidelines, which expanded the evacuation radius to 30 km from a radiation source instead of 10 km.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said around 3,300 people will take part, including local, prefectural and national officials, power utilities and residents.

The drill is expected to feel closer to reality because many of the participants will not be given advance details of when and how the scenario will unfold, an NRA official in charge of the issue said.

“In past exercises, participants knew all the scenarios and their statements were prepared — which was more like performing a role in a drama. But we found that this method will not nurture people’s ability to cope with the situation,” he said.

The state, local governments and nuclear power plants will also practice coordinating their responses in the joint exercise, such as by using teleconferencing systems to share information.

Residents within 5 km of the plant will be told to evacuate before radioactive release starts, while some of those farther out, up to a 30-km radius, will flee based on the assumption that radiation levels requiring evacuation have been detected.

In the Fukushima crisis, which involved three core meltdowns after the huge earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, residents within 20 km of the plant and some areas beyond eventually were told to evacuate.

The evacuation process caused great confusion because the government was unprepared and revised the evacuation zones several times while the crisis was unfolding. Many residents fled with only the barest necessities and in some cases even headed to areas with higher radiation levels because the government sat on nuclear fallout projections calculated by SPEEDI, a state-funded computer system designed just for that purpose.

In addition, the central government dragged its feet in advising the distribution and use of iodine pills to residents to help prevent thyroid cancer.

Under the new disaster mitigation guidelines, residents within 5 km of a nuclear power plant will be given a supply of iodine tablets in advance so they can promptly take them.

The tablets have not yet been distributed to people participating in the drill, but residents will be asked to act on the assumption that they have the tablets, according to the NRA.

First disaster drill since Fukushima crisis begins at Kagoshima nuke plant

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201310110060

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

SATSUMASENDAI, Kagoshima Prefecture--The Sendai nuclear plant, operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co., began carrying out a disaster management training exercise on Oct. 11, the first such drill since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident unfolded.

A total of about 3,300 individuals will take part in the two-day training exercise. In addition to local residents, officials from about 130 government institutions, including members of the prime minister's office, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, local governments, the police and Self-Defense Forces, will also participate.

The training exercise is to differ drastically from ones held prior to the meltdowns in three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Past drills were criticized as being ineffective because participants were told beforehand what would happen in the simulated exercise, and they reacted according to a prearranged script. This was due, in part, to belief in the safety myth that said critical accidents would never occur at Japanese nuclear plants.

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the central government vastly reviewed the framework for disaster management at nuclear plants. A major change was expanding the range of the area where intensified disaster management measures had to be taken from a radius of between eight and 10 kilometers from a nuclear plant to a radius of 30 km.

For this year's training exercise, residents living within the 30-km radius will take part in an evacuation drill for the first time.

The exercise on Oct. 11 began at 10 a.m. under the simulated conditions of an earthquake with an intensity of upper 6 on the Japanese scale of 7 striking an area near the Sendai nuclear plant, causing the No. 2 reactor to automatically shut down.

Shortly after noon, another simulated condition was added--the loss of all electricity to the plant due to an aftershock.

At the Kagoshima prefectural nuclear disaster management center, located about 11 km east of the nuclear plant, simulated news video reporting on the earthquake was broadcast on a large monitor. Prefectural government officials working at the center were busy handling the various pieces of information that came in from Kyushu Electric Power, including the automatic shutdown of the reactor and the outbreak of a fire at the plant.

Past training exercises were criticized for not preparing officials for dealing with the real thing.

The Diet's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission said in its report, "The training exercise cannot be said to have been effective."

In response to that criticism, the latest exercise was changed so that many participants were not informed in detail about what would unfold. Unexpected situations were created by simulating that measures prepared beforehand failed to function properly. The training was expected to help participants develop the ability to deal with an ever-changing situation.

The evacuation drill involving local residents will be held on Oct. 12.