Key Issues
Emergency Preparedness Near Nuclear Power Plants
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January 2009
Key Facts
January 2009
Key Facts
- Federal law requires that energy companies develop and exercise sophisticated emergency response plans to protect public health and safety in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves these plans. In addition, the NRC coordinates approval of these plans with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program (REPP), which has the lead role in emergency planning beyond the nuclear plant site. An approved emergency plan is required for the plant to maintain its federal operating license.
- Every nuclear power plant is designed, constructed and managed to prevent radioactive releases, even in the event of natural disasters, operational accidents or terrorist acts. A variety of measures work together to protect public safety: the design and safety features built into the plant; the multiple layers of physical barriers that protect the reactor; and highly trained, federally certified professionals who operate the plant safely and know how to respond in the event of emergencies.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the NRC, with input from several other federal agencies, determined that a 10-mile emergency planning zone (EPZ) is appropriate to protect public health and safety in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant. The federal task force also established a 50-mile zone to protect the public from exposure to radioactive materials through consumption of food, milk and water should such an event occur.
- A nuclear plant’s emergency planning zone must provide protective measures, such as sheltering, evacuation and consideration of distributing potassium iodide to communities within the 10-mile EPZ.
- Each nuclear plant site must test its emergency plan every two years in a coordinated exercise with local and state government agencies. The NRC evaluates the performance of the company’s plan. REPP evaluates the emergency plans of towns and cities near nuclear power plants. If the NRC or REPP has concerns about the adequacy of emergency preparedness, the NRC could suspend plant operation until these concerns are resolved.
- Following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the NRC issued new requirements and guidance that focus in part on emergency preparedness at plant sites in response to terrorist threats. The industry has implemented these measures, which address such issues as on-site evacuation, public communications and emergency staffing, as well as procedures and plans in the specific context of a terrorist attack.
- The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) concluded in January 2008 that distribution of potassium iodide in the region 10 to 20 miles from a nuclear power plant is unnecessary. Interdiction of any contaminated food and evacuation are more effective measures for protecting the public, OSTP said.
- Several communities have used off-site nuclear plant emergency plans in response to other types of emergencies. For example, during the October 2007 wildfires in California, county emergency officials drew on relationships and communications links they had established during their years of planning for nuclear-related events.
