“This is a standard drill,” Southern Nuclear spokeswoman Michelle Tims said. “It is the last drill at Plant Vogtle for the year, and we have conducted five drills at Plant Vogtle this year.”
The plant in Burke County has two existing reactors and is also a major construction site where work continues on two new Westinghouse AP-1000 units scheduled to begin commercial operation in 2016 and 2017.
Participating in the exercise will be employees from Southern Nuclear, Georgia Power and Southern Co. – as well as representatives from the local emergency management agencies.
The company’s emergency operations facility in Birmingham, Ala., will be involved, but the company’s Joint Information Center in Waynesboro, Ga., will not be activated during this event.
In addition to periodic drills, a major exercise that includes a simulated emergency is held every two years. The last such large-scale event, held in March, included activation of the $2 million Joint Information Center that opened in January 2011.
In a real emergency, the center – equipped with a briefing room, newsroom and offices for emergency officials – would be the site for dissemination of information to the public and media.
