News Archive 2004

A Routine Drill at a New York Power Plant, With a New Focus on Terrorism
By Ian Urbina
The New York Times
June 9, 2004

BUCHANAN, N.Y., June 8 - The crisis was coming fast and furious at the Indian Point nuclear power plant. First came a report that weapons, maps and documents concerning the plant had been found in a car on a highway in Connecticut. Then a Boeing 767 jet crashed near a transformer, causing a major fire and damaging several buildings.

"People were really scrambling and the mood was intense," said Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, who is now a risk management consultant for Entergy, the owner of the plant, and was in its command center during Tuesday's simulated emergency.

The emergency drill was the same exercise performed every other year at the plant, but for the first time, the script involved terrorism. The event, which involved more than 1,000 state and local officials in addition to the F.B.I., Norad and the White House, challenged local governments, including Putnam, Westchester, Rockland and Orange Counties, to respond to a staged crisis that started around 8 a.m. and lasted until 4. The possibility that a plane could crash into the plant has been a source of concern ever since Sept. 11, 2001, when a 767, the same type of plane used in Tuesday's exercise, flew over the plant on its way to the World Trade Center.

During the drill, officials pretended to mobilize firefighters, dispatch helicopters and redirect traffic. Evacuations of parts of Westchester, Rockland and Orange Counties were simulated. Operators at the plant were confronted with mechanical malfunctions that caused Indian Point to shut down, and they also faced a major valve rupture, which leaked radioactive water. But much to the disappointment of those who are skeptical of the plant's emergency plans, there was no simulated leak of radiation, leaving many unconvinced of the drill's effectiveness.

Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat and a longtime critic of the plant, dismissed the exercise as an "elaborate cartoon," calling it "a simulation of entertainment but little more."

Andrew J. Spano, the county executive of Westchester, where Indian Point is located, said he was unimpressed by the drill. "We asked for a scenario which would involve a fast-breaking release of radiation so that we could really be tested," he said. "Instead, we got a slow-motion drill with no actual radiation release into the environment."

But Michael J. Slobodien, director of emergency programs for Entergy, dismissed the criticism. "The whole critique that the drill was inadequate because there was no actual radiation released into the environment is unfounded," he said. "There was a leak at the plant which could have affected the population at large, which meant that all the counties had to be ready for a general release of radiation into the environment."

Mr. Spano also noted that gridlock, a major concern in a real crisis, was addressed only before the drill's evacuation stage. "It hardly came as a surprise that they reported that there was no gridlock," he said.

Around 30 protesters, some dressed in head-to-toe anticontamination suits, held signs saying "What About the Gridlock?" and "Forget about an Evacuation!" Kyle Rabin, a policy analyst from Riverkeeper, one of the organizers of the protest, said local hospitals had never had to treat the huge number of casualties that a real emergency would entail. He also questioned why the simulation did not consider the potential for contamination of a larger area. "In a realistic case, the emergency would last long enough that the wind might change directions," he said.

Representative Nita M. Lowey, a Westchester Democrat whose district includes the plant, which is 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, said she was glad the drill included an air-based attack. But she added she was still concerned that the plant had not proven its ability to deal with a fast-breaking release of radiation.

Part of the drill involved a mock media center at the Westchester County Airport, which provided updates throughout the day about the unfolding emergency. People posing as reporters sat in the front and asked officials questions, while other observers, including actual reporters, stood in the back of the room and were told to remain silent so as not to interfere with the drill.

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