nuclear-news

Evacuation drill held near Ikata nuclear plant

Local residents take part in evacuation drill held near Ikata nuclear plant  http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/09/04/national/local-residents-take-part-evacuation-drill-held-near-ikata-nuclear-plant/#.V8yIJlt97Gg   IKATA, EHIME PREF. – The Ehime Prefectural Government on Sunday held an evacuation exercise around Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata nuclear power plant, the first of its kind since the Aug. 12 restart of the No. 3 reactor at the plant.

Some 400 residents in the town of Ikata joined the exercise to check how to get to Misaki Port from their homes under the scenario a serious accident had happened.

Led by local police cars, participants began appearing at a temporary meeting place near the port some 20 minutes after they started evacuation by sharing rides.

From the meeting place, where candies were delivered as iodine pills by nurses, they rode on buses to the port as instructed by local authorities. All attendees arrived at the port, where maritime evacuation begins, about 50 minutes after the start of the drill.

As the nuclear plant is located at the base of Cape Sada, evacuation operations on both land and marine routes are under consideration. Last November, an exercise was held to take evacuees by ship to Oita Prefecture on the other side of the Seto Inland Sea.

A resident who joined Sunday’s drill said that if there were a landslide caused by heavy rain, it would be difficult to come to the port.

September 5, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety