The Vandellòs II nuclear power plant activated its annual emergency drill on Thursday, May 14, with a scenario that ended in a general emergency, category IV of the Internal Emergency Plan. The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council, the Generalitat Firefighters, the Civil Guard, and local administrations participated in the exercise.
The maneuver started with a combination of unusual incidents for an ordinary drill. In addition to wind gusts of more than 110 kilometers per hour and a failure in the turbogenerator that caused the automatic shutdown of the reactor, there was an external hostile attack with drones and two intrusion attempts, one of which was successful.
The drill led to the declaration of a category IV general emergency
This chain of events forced the response to be elevated to the maximum level provided for in the plant's internal plan. The simulated incident was initially classified as level three on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
In addition to the technical failure and intrusion, the exercise included a fire within the facility. Emergency teams extinguished it and attended to an injured person, who was decontaminated before being evacuated to a health center.
Non-essential personnel also left the plant. The plant ordered their evacuation, and this group participated in a location, concentration, and evacuation exercise.
The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council recommended confining the population within 10 kilometers
During the drill, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council recommended controlling access and implementing the preventive confinement of the population within a 10-kilometer radius around Vandellòs II. The organization's coordination took place from its Emergency Room and from the Operational Coordination Center located at the Government Sub-delegation in Tarragona.
In parallel, the organization reproduced the activation of mode two of its Emergency Response Organization. The participation of external services made it possible to check the connection between the plant, security commands, and the mobilized administrations in the territory.
For its part, the Ascó-Vandellòs II Nuclear Association explained that the exercise served to test the internal protocols of the firefighting brigades, radiological surveillance, and medical and decontamination procedures.
The work scenario included an attack with drones and an effective intrusion along with the failure of the turbo-group, conditions that led to rehearsing the preventive lockdown in the facility's environment.
The external coordination of the drill was supported by the Operational Coordination Center of the Sub-delegation of the Government in Tarragona, where the Nuclear Safety Council reproduced the activation of mode two of its Emergency Response Organization.