Cofrentes nuclear power plant exercises emergency response with its annual simulation

The Cofrentes nuclear power plant carried out, between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. yesterday, December 17, the mandatory annual drill of the Installation’s Interior Emergency Plan (PEI). The activity has been carried out taking into account the exceptionality of the current situation of pandemic by Covid-19 and prioritizing the safety and health of people, so it has involved a small human team, applying the relevant protection measures and avoiding practices in which a large concentration of workers would have been required.

The exercise was based on the simulation of an operational situation with an indication of fuel damage, added to a fire in the turbine building that would lead to the deployment of various intervention teams in the field, as well as the displacement of portable equipment.

The evolution of the exercise has led to the simulated declaration of a general emergency of the Interior Emergency Plan and has allowed the set of actions and procedures established for these scenarios to be trained in a satisfactory manner.

Always under the hypothesis of the postulated scenario, during the course of the drill various external organizations have been activated, establishing communication channels with the Government Sub-delegation in Valencia through the CECOP (Operational Coordination Center), as well as with the Provincial Firefighters Consortium from Valencia and Iberdrola staff from the External Support Center.

The Nuclear Safety Council, as well as internal auditors from CN Cofrentes, have followed on-site the development of the simulation, which has concluded satisfactorily.