Nuclear emergency exercise simulates plane crash into Bruce reactor
It’s all hands on deck at Bruce Power this week, as Ontario’s largest nuclear plant simulates a nuclear catastrophe.
“It’s a challenging scenario. A plane crashes into the Bruce B station. That leads to loss of life, the main steam line is broken, missing people, environmental issues, a spill into the lake. It’s an extremely challenging scenario,” explains Bruce Power’s Director of Community and Media Relations, John Peevers.
“Huron Endeavour” is Bruce Power’s fourth mock nuclear disaster exercise since 2012.
Under this scenario, over 40 people are dead, and many more are unaccounted for, after a plane plows into the Bruce B Nuclear Generating Station. Crews are working to try and contain any radiation leaks, all the while trying to get the station up and running again, as quickly as possible, in order to provide power to the rest of Ontario.
“It’s a worst case scenario, something we never actually foresee happening, but we also want to make sure we are challenging ourselves,” says Peevers.
Any emergency at Bruce Power is an emergency for surrounding communities, and the province. Kincardine, Ont. is the largest community close to Bruce Power, and are amongst the 1,000 emergency officials across Ontario taking part in the mock disaster training.
Inside the Bruce Power Emergency Response Centre near Tiverton, Ont. on Oct. 5, 2022 during a mock emergency drill. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)
“Whether it’s KI [potassium iodide] pills to sheltering in place, there’s so many layers to this exercise. It’s like an onion. We keep peeling back the layers to exploit different hot spots to ensure we can maximize our robustness, in terms of our state of readiness,” says Kincardine Mayor, Gerry Glover.
Peevers says the tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan acted as a wake up call to the industry, that worst case scenarios can happen, and need to trained for.
“A tsunami isn’t going to happen in Lake Huron. Could it be a severe winter storm that cuts us off from the outside world? A tornado, or natural disaster? We continue to look at these different scenarios to make sure we’re ready,” adds Peevers.
Lessons learned from previous emergency exercises and Fukushima has prompted Bruce Power to move their emergency vehicles to different locations around their sprawling facility, instead of storing them in one central location, in case that one location is destroyed or damaged.
“I can assure the community and broader audience, that if there was a nuclear disaster, worst case scenario, we are prepared, we are ready, and we have everyone mobilized who needs to be,” says Glover.
Peevers says Bruce Power conducts over 100 safety drills each year, and emergency exercises on the scale of “Huron Endeavour” every three years.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.