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
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.