The mobile phones of 61 municipalities located in the vicinity of the Ascó and Vandellòs II nuclear power plants will receive in the coming days a test message from the ES Alert system as part of a state drill scheduled between April 24 and May 13. In Tarragona, the exercise will affect zone I of the external emergency plans, that is, the ten-kilometer radius around each facility.
Two tests in Tarragona at the end of April
The first simulation in Cataluña will be done on April 27 in the Vandellòs II area, in the comarca del Baix Camp. Two days later, on April 29 will be the turn of the Ascó surroundings, in the Ribera d Ebre. In both cases, the drill will start at eleven in the morning.
The test is part of the PENTA I plans and will consist of sending notices to mobile phones through the operators' repeater antennas. The transmission of the messages will last for a period of between 15 and 20 minutes, within the coverage area defined for each central.
Activation from Tarragona and national shipping
The Government sub-delegation in Tarragona will be in charge of activating the request for the alert. Afterwards, the Centre Estatal de Seguiment i Coordinació d Emergències, known as CENEM, will carry out the notification that will reach the terminals located in the area affected by the drill.
The test is aimed at checking the functioning of the alert system to the population in case of emergency in the areas closest to the plants. The action is limited to zone I, which covers the ten-kilometer radius foreseen in the external emergency plans.
More than 75,000 people affected by the test
The test will reach more than 75,000 inhabitants distributed in 61 municipalities. The deployment will not be limited to Catalonia, as the same type of drill will also be carried out in nuclear areas of Burgos, Cáceres, Guadalajara and Valencia within the calendar set until May 13.
Those who are that day in the vicinity of Vandellòs II or Ascó will be able to receive the alert on their mobile phone even if they do not reside in those municipalities, as long as they are within the established coverage area during the time slot in which the exercise takes place.