Nuclear Emergency Exercises

An exercise is an artificial situation designed to enable emergency response organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of their emergency plans, procedures, and capabilities. Exercises are intended to identify any problems, inadequacies, or gaps in preparedness and response plans so that these issues may be resolved prior to a real emergency, and provide opportunities for personnel to be thoroughly trained and ready to respond quickly and effectively.

Emergency exercises are designed to test a particular component of a plan, emergency function, or link within or between emergency response organizations. Naturally, exercise scenarios cannot simulate all aspects of a real emergency event; however, exercise planners and designers strive to make scenarios as realistic as possible within their constraints. The exercise is initiated through the input of a hypothetical triggering event, and "players" respond as though the situation was real. The scope of an exercise is kept within prescribed bounds so that the focus remains on the components being exercised. The safety of participants is always paramount.

Nuclear emergency exercises in Canada can involve many facilities, organizations, and levels of government. They are time- consuming and costly to plan and conduct, particularly those that involve more than one level of government. An exercise can be designed to train a small group of personnel in one aspect of their response functions, or it can be a large-scale scenario involving many countries, sophisticated technology, and considerable resources.

As lead department for coordinating the federal response to a nuclear emergency, Health Canada consistently trains and drills its response staff; plans and executes exercises; and participates regularly in local, provincial and international nuclear emergency exercises. Partners in these exercises have included the nuclear power industry; the provinces ; other government departments and agencies; the United States; and other countries such as France.

The following are examples of nuclear emergency exercises in which Health Canada participated. All exercises entailed different scenarios, participants, and levels of involvement.

Exercise Follow On (February 2005):

Incorporating lessons learned from Exercise AS IS, EXFO was a 24-hour scenario based on a simulated terrorist incident. The exercise tested field crews' response to an incident involving loose radioactive contamination and radioactive sources. Participants included subject matter experts from Health Canada with portal monitors; an aerial survey team from Natural Resources Canada; and ground survey crews from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and the Department of National Defence.

Province of Ontario Nuclear Exercises (October 2004 - 2000):

Every year the Province of Ontario hosts a nuclear emergency exercise based at a nuclear generating station: in 2003 the exercise was based at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station; in 2002 and 2004 the exercises were based at the FERMI II Nuclear Generating Station in the State of Michigan; in 2001 the exercise was based at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's Chalk River facility; and the 2000 exercise was based at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development facility. Each exercise focused on different aspects or components of an emergency event, and all of the exercises involved the nuclear facilities; local municipalities; provincial departments; and federal departments, including Health Canada.

Emergency Management Ontario (September 2004):

Health Canada participated in a three-day exercise hosted by EMO's Assurance Monitoring Group that tested food sampling protocols during the recovery phase after a radiological accident. Collecting and testing procedures were exercised, including the use of one of four federal Mobile Nuclear Labs. Participants included the Ontario Ministries of Environment, Agriculture, and Labour; and the federal departments of National Defence, Health Canada, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Health Canada COG Exercise (June 2004):

The Federal Nuclear Emergency Plan's Coordination and Operations Group (COG) was tested in a tabletop exercise utilizing Health Canada's Emergency Operations Centre in Ottawa. The scenario was based on a simulated accident at Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick, and involved the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Environment Canada, Industry Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Privy Council Office, and Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada. Exercise objectives included clarifying departmental roles and responsibilities; identifying gaps in response capabilities, and solidifying working group processes.

Health Canada TAG Exercise (June 2004):

The Federal Nuclear Emergency Plan's Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was exercised with the participation of Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, and the Department of National Defence, as well as New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization. Exercise objectives were t o identify and confirm roles and responsibilities of TAG members, and to demonstrate available TAG tools, such as Health Canada's information management and decision support system for radio-nuclear emergencies.

Ministère de l'environnement du Québec (May 2004):

Testing radiation survey protocols in the intervention zones surrounding the Gentilly II nuclear power generating station in the province of Québec, this exercise was based on a hypothetical loss of coolant accident. Health Canada provided federal staff equipped with portal monitors and electronic and thermoluminescent dosimeters to the exercise, which involved response teams from two Québec provincial ministries.

Exercise AS IS (October 2003):

Exercise AS IS, sponsored by the federal government's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI), was developed especially to test field teams in the CRTI Radio-Nuclear Cluster. Hidden sealed radioactive sources were found and recovered by ground survey teams from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Defence Research and Development Canada, as well as an aerial survey team from Natural Resources Canada.

Exercise Intrepid (August 2003):

Based on a mock radiological incident at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick, this two-day exercise was organized by the Department of Safety for the Province of New Brunswick, and involved provincial and federal departments and agencies. Health Canada staff participated locally in the provincial Emergency Operations Centre as well as from the National Capital Region, testing federal-provincial capabilities and arrangements for managing longer-term consequences.

TOPOFF 2 (May 2003):

The United States' TOPOFF (for "Top Officials") annual series of exercises is mandated by the U.S. Congress, and Canada was invited by the American government to participate in the 2003 event in order to test cross-border capabilities. This comprehensive exercise included a fictitious "dirty bomb" scenario, involving the dispersion of radiological materials which affected Canada. TOPOFF 2 was exercised as a tabletop in Canada, involving Ministers from 17 federal departments and agencies, including Health Canada.

JINEX 1 / INEX 2000 Exercise (May 2001):

The Joint International Nuclear Exercise (JINEX 1), also known as INEX 2000, was an extensive international nuclear emergency exercise centred on a French national exercise at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in the north of France, near the Belgian border. Health Canada participated in JINEX 1 to assess Canada's emergency preparedness and response capabilities to a foreign nuclear reactor accident.

CANATEX 3 / INEX 2 Exercise (April 1999):

CANATEX (CAnadian NATional EXercise) exercises, coordinated by the Department of National Defence's Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (now with Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada), were introduced to test and evaluate all Canadian federal contingency plans. CANATEX 3 was a nuclear emergency exercise intended to evaluate the Federal Nuclear Emergency Plan and its interface with both the Province under the Ontario Nuclear Emergency Plan and with the United States under the Canada-United States Joint Radiological Emergency Response Plan . This exercise was based on a simulated accident at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario.

At the same time, the Darlington scenario was used as the second in a series of international nuclear emergency exercises sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Referred to as INEX 2, it was intended as a series of world regional command-post exercises, with the voluntary participation of many countries. INEX 2 was designed to test real-time exchange of information between countries; public information dissemination; and decision-making processes based on limited information and uncertain nuclear plant conditions.

The CANATEX 3/INEX 2 exercise was a comprehensive, diverse, and challenging exercise involving coordination of on-site, provincial, federal, and international levels of response.