Public Meeting Will Present Preliminary Findings For Cooper Nuclear Station Facility 

Release Date: June 29, 2012
Release Number: R7-12-010

» 2012 Region VII News Releases

Kansas City, Mo. – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will host a public meeting on August 3, 2012. Participants will discuss the exercise process involved with a full-scale response exercise scheduled to be conducted July 31 through August 1, 2012, by federal, state, and local public safety organizations and the Cooper nuclear facility.

Members of the public and the media are invited to attend this meeting. It begins at 10:00 a.m. in the Nebraska Public Power District, Emergency Operations Facility Auditorium, at 902 Central Avenue, in Auburn, Nebraska.

Representatives from FEMA Region VII will chair the meeting and explain the exercise process as well as the involvement of the states of Nebraska and Missouri and their respective risk and host counties. A representative from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Region IV office, located in Arlington, Texas, will also be present and discuss activities conducted on-site at the Cooper Nuclear Station during the exercise.

The two day exercise will require the activation of emergency facilities for the states of Nebraska and Missouri, as well as Otoe, Nemaha, and Richardson counties in Nebraska and Atchison and Nodaway counties in Missouri. The activities of participants from the state, county and local units of government will be observed and evaluated by the FEMA Region VII Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) Program. The Cooper Nuclear Station onsite performance will be observed and evaluated by NRC. Because no results will be finalized at that time, the outcomes of the exercise will not be discussed at the public meeting on August 3, 2012.

The exercise is a biennial requirement to determine the adequacy of the radiological emergency preparedness and response plans. The main goal is to test the ability of the state of Nebraska and Missouri, the utility and the participating counties to protect the health and safety of the public living in the vicinity of the Cooper Nuclear Station. The evaluated exercise provides reasonable assurance that the appropriate protective measures can be taken onsite and offsite in the event of a radiological emergency.

The NRC is the federal agency responsible for evaluating onsite emergency plans and exercises for nuclear power plants. FEMA Region VII REP Program staff is responsible for evaluating offsite plans and exercises for states and counties through the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program.

Visit FEMA Region VII online at www.fema.gov/region7. Follow FEMA online at www.twitter.com/fema, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema. Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema. The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Last Modified: Friday, 29-Jun-2012 17:06:14