Prepping for a nuclear incident

Emergency personnel will be tested this week


LISBON — Columbiana County emergency personnel practiced their moves in case of a nuclear power plant incident recently — now they’ll test those moves for a grade this week.

“There’s a whole lot of intricacies involved in the evaluation process,” county Emergency Management Agency Director Darren Dodson said.

Every 18 to 24 months, emergency responders have to test their procedures related to a possible incident at the Beaver Valley Power Station, a nuclear power plant which is located in Pennsylvania, within 10 miles of the county.

Due to the plant’s close proximity, plant owner First Energy Nuclear Operation Company foots most of the bills for the county’s EMA operation, which oversees the drill. Personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency throw out a scenario for a plant emergency and then grade what happens in response.

“Something breaks and then we have to sound sirens and make decisions,” Dodson explained.

“The most important objective is to ensure the health and safety of the residents who surround the plant,” Ohio EMA radiological analyst Rudy Sacchet said.

Both Sacchet and Dodson stressed that the people on the ground level at meeting that objective are the firefighters and police agencies residents rely on now for emergency situations, such as accidents or fires or the aftermath of a major storm.

“The worker bees are the first responders. Those are the folks who bear the brunt of performing the functions,” Sacchet said.

With the practice run already completed, FEMA personnel will begin keeping score tonight when Negley and New Waterford fire departments set up a mock reception center at the Negley Fire Department to monitor the general public for radiation and perform decontamination if necessary. The American Red Cross and county Health Department will take part also. A mock care center will be set up at McKinley Elementary School in Lisbon and the East Liverpool Fire Department will handle route verification.

On Tuesday morning, the Sheriff’s Office will demonstrate traffic and access control to affected areas and the East Liverpool school administration, which includes the superintendent, principals and bus drivers, will demonstrate a school response.

On Tuesday afternoon, the EMA Jay Carter Emergency Operations Center personnel will assemble, be given the scenario and then work the drill into the evening hours, coordinating what would they would do in case of a real emergency. Besides the EMA personnel, the operations center is staffed by volunteers and representatives of the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the county Sheriff’s Office, the county Engineer’s Office, the county Educational Service Center, the county commissioners, the American Red Cross, the county Health Department, the county Farm Bureau, the Ohio National Guard, amateur radio operators, the East Palestine Fire Department and the Hanoverton Fire Department.

On Wednesday, the West Point Fire Department will demonstrate an emergency worker decontamination center at Beaver Local High School and the EMA will look at what Dodson called the triple R — reentry, recovery and return. Decisions have to be made on when to return people who have been evacuated, if that’s the case.

On Friday morning, FEMA will hold a public meeting at 10 a.m. to announce the preliminary findings of the drill.

Dodson and his staff survived their first drill in 2006 in a new building with new technology. He said they had a couple of holes in the areas of public information and a training issue on the use of geiger counters in the field, but they’ve worked on those problems. He noted they conducted individual training sessions for the operations center representatives and sent two public information officers to a training course.

Even if there’s no emergency at the Beaver Valley plant, he said the training for the drill gives emergency personnel experience they can use in other ways, such as in case of a large-scale real-life emergency where some of the same principles can be used for evacuation or traffic control or the release of public information.

“I think it kind of gives us an advantage,” he said.

Columbiana County is one of only seven counties in Ohio which goes through a radiological drill. Beaver County in Pennsylvania and Hancock County in West Virginia will participate in the same drill dealing with Beaver Valley.

Sacchet said the training and testing has been an ongoing process in the county since 1979, when there was a radiological event at Three Mile Island, a nuclear power facility in Pennsylvania. The accident led to the preparations now taken by emergency responders.

About 150 participants are expected to take part in the drill.

Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier@salemnews.net