Home > Emergency Planning > Expert Planning

About Palisades Power Plant

• Emergency Levels
• Emergency planning zones
• Evacuation information
• Farmers, food processors and distributor actions
• Food facts
• Notification
• Nuclear facts
• Radiation information
• Radio stations
• Recovery specifics

Emergency levels

Emergency conditions span four classifications. These range from an emergency involving workers within the plant to an emergency involving residents around the plant site. The classifications are unusual event, alert, site area emergency and general emergency.

• Unusual event—The lowest level of emergency wherein a small problem has occurred inside a nuclear plant. Federal, state and county officials would be notified immediately. No action would be required for non-employees.
• Alert—This classification is also for a minor problem inside a nuclear plant and does not affect non-employees. Federal, state and county officials would be notified immediately and ready to take additional steps if necessary.
• Site emergency—A more serious level of problem where potential for small amounts of radiation may be released from the plant. If necessary, state and county officials would take action to ensure public safety through advisory announcements broadcast over local television and EAS radio stations.
• General emergency—The most serious classification where radiation could be released from the plant with a potential for public health risks. Sirens would be sounded during a general emergency. State and county officials would take immediate action to ensure public health and safety.

A nuclear plant emergency could affect an area varying from only the immediate plant site itself to many square miles around the plant. The hazard would be from radioactive gases or radioactive materials the wind could carry from the plant.

If emergency action is needed, plant neighbors will be notified immediately. The county sheriff will sound sirens to warn you to tune to local radio or television stations. Sheriffs' departments also will use slow-moving law enforcement vehicles to alert the public. In addition, weather-alert radios will be used to give commercial, institutional and educational facilities (such as schools and hospitals) specific advice.

Local officials will test the emergency warning sirens around the plant on the first Wednesday of each month. If the siren in your neighborhood does not sound in this monthly test, notify the sheriff.

Emergency planning zones

Two types of planning may be referred to in an emergency:

• Plume Exposure Pathway EPZ is the area within a 10 mile radius around the nuclear power plant in which people may be directly exposed to radiation.
• Ingestion Exposure Pathway EPZ is the area within a 50 miles radius around the nuclear power plant in which people may be indirectly exposed to radiation by eating or drinking contaminated food, milk and water.

Reentry

Reentry is the temporary, controlled entry into a restricted area. If property is in the evacuation or restricted area, individuals may be allowed to return to it temporarily when conditions permit, to tend to operations. State or local government officials will use the media to advise property owners if reentry is permitted. Specific instructions will be given on routes, entry points and safety precautions in effect.

Recovery

Recovery is the process of reducing radiation in the environment to acceptable levels for normal daily living. State and local officials will take samples of air, water, soil, crops and animal products from farms or businesses. If contamination is found, they will provide specific instructions and assist in decontamination procedures. Contaminated food will be isolated to prevent its entry into the marketplace. State officials will determine if condemnation and disposal area necessary.

Individuals will be compensated for losses suffered as a result of a power plant accident. Carefully document all losses incurred.

Evacuation information

Once you hear an evacuation order over the radio, follow the authorities' instructions. If you are asked to evacuate, follow the instructions promptly. Don't panic. You will have time to pack a few personal items and secure your home.

All normal traffic laws will be maintained. Your local law enforcement agency will assist evacuation.

• Close all doors and windows. Pack a few personal items, and prepare your home as if you were leaving on vacation.
• Follow radio instructions to evacuate to the emergency reception center.
• Drive out of the emergency planning zone by the most direct route before proceeding to the emergency reception center.

After registering at the emergency reception center, you can:

• Stay with a friend or relatives outside of the affected area

OR
• Stay at a congregate care center

Reception center

If evacuation is necessary, proceed to the nearest reception center:

• Allegan High School
  1560 M-40 Highway
  Allegan MI 49010
• Berrien Springs High School
  One Sylvester Avenue
  Berrien Springs MI 49103
• Bridgman High School
  9964 Gast Road
  Bridgman MI 49106
• Eau Claire High School
  7450 Hochberger Road
  Eau Claire MI 49111
• Fennville High School
  4 Memorial Drive
  Fennville MI 49408
• Gobles High School
  409 North State Street
  Gobles MI 49055
• Paw Paw High School
  30609 Red Arrow Highway
  Paw Paw MI 49079

Children at school

In case of an evacuation, go to the temporary host facility for the school that your child attends. be sure to use only those roads identified by authorities.

The elderly, physically challenged, hearing-impaired or blind

Local emergency management officials will help people unable to evacuate on their own. If you know someone who is elderly, hearing-impaired, blind or physically challenged, or someone without a car, or if you need help, don't wait for an emergency to ask for help. For more information, please call your area emergency management director.

Farmers, food processors and distributor actions

Perform the following actions when directed by state and local officials. The information will be provided through the media.

Actions to protect livestock

Remove livestock from pasture, shelter in an enclosed facility, and limit the entry of outside air and water. Provide feed and water from protected sources. If livestock cannot be completely sheltered, use a shelter that provides as much protection as possible from outside air and rainwater.

If livestock consume contaminated air, water or feed, the contaminants could enter the human food supply through milk or dairy products. State or local government officials may come to farms to take milk, feed and water samples for laboratory analysis.

If dairy products are found to be contaminated, state or local officials will recommend specific actions based on the type and amount of contamination.

Poultry and poultry products

Poultry raised indoors and given protected feed and water are not likely to be contaminated. For poultry raised outdoors, state and local officials will advise what actions to take.

Fish and marine life

State and local officials will monitor fish in ponds and hatcheries to determine if they can continue to be harvested. Samples of water and fish from bodies of fresh water will be analyzed. Recommendations will be made on the results.

Soils

Soils will be tested to determine if there is contamination. State and local officials will recommend soil management procedures if necessary.

Grains

Unharvested grains will be sampled before harvesting. Harvested grains will be sampled before use.

Water

Protect open water sources. Cover rain barrels and tanks. Covered wells and other covered underground water sources require no protective actions.

Disconnect fill pipes from storage containers supplied by surface runoff.

Honey

State or local officials will take samples from the honey and bee hives. Recommendations will be made based on sample results.

Food processors and distributors

Government officials may restrict the movement of food products and withhold them from the marketplace until sampling analysis is completed. Officials may instruct to hold raw food products for sampling before processing. Officials will issue instructions on the safe handling and disposition of contaminated food products.

Food facts

Wait until authorities issue protective actions for food before you consume any poultry or eggs.

Do not kill any wild game in the area for food. It might have been exposed to, or have eaten, radioactive materials.

A release of radioactivity might contaminate fish. Radioactivity enters the water from settling or runoff. An agricultural or public health official will analyze water samples from nearby bodies of water and fish farms. Until authorities find fresh water fish in the area to be safe for eating, do not harvest them.

Use the same precautions with wild edibles—plants, fruit, berries, mushrooms and seeds—from the emergency area. Do not eat them. Wait until the proper authorities test and declare them safe.

Do not harvest any garden vegetables or fruits until you can wash them with a clean, protected water supply after you return. Then first peel or remove outer layers before eating them

For more information, read the booklet "Emergency Radiological Instructions & Information" for Minnesota residents. Your agricultural extension service office can provide copies if you did not receive one.

Notification

Siren tests are conducted the second Saturday of every month for the Palisades area. If you have concerns that a siren did not sound when it should have, or has somehow malfunctioned, please call your local government representative.

Listen for a steady siren tone lasting three minutes. In areas not served by sirens, slow-moving law enforcement vehicles will warn citizens using sirens and loudspeakers. When you hear a siren or loudspeaker warning, tune to a local radio or TV station. please do not call law enforcement authorities.

After the siren sounds, your local station will have instructions. Radio stations will give up-to-the minute information on what to do and where to go.

If a siren is activated for an accident at the nuclear power plant, an EAS message will be broadcast immediately by local stations that are operating at that time of day.

Siren tests are conducted the first Wednesday of each month for the Monticello/Kewaunee/Point Beach areas. Siren tests are conducted the second Saturday of every month for the Palisades area. If you have concerns that a siren did not sound when it should have, or has somehow malfunctioned, please call your local government representative.

Nuclear facts

How does a nuclear power plant work?

Steam power plants, whether they are coal or nuclear, use heat to make electricity. They operate like a giant tea kettle, turning water into steam which is then used to turn a generator to make electricity. The only difference between coal and nuclear power plants is that nuclear plants use uranium as the fuel to produce the heat instead of coal.

In a nuclear power plant reactor, water is heated by a process called nuclear fission.

• Uranium atoms are split when they are struck by neutrons.
• When the atoms split, they release heat, along with two or three more neutrons.
• These neutrons then strike other uranium atoms, again causing the atoms to split, release heat and again, two or three more neutrons. This is called a chain reaction.

Heated water travels from the reactor to the steam generators.

• The water flows through thousands of tubes in the steam generators and then flows back to the reactor.
• The tubes become hot and transfer the heat to a second system of water that is transformed into steam.

The steam then spins the turbines, which are tied to the generators, which produce electricity.

First in safety

A series of barriers and safety systems within the plant keeps radioactivity from normal operations inside. The building that contains radioactive fuel and the reactor has thick concrete and steel walls and flooring. The building, or containment, acts as a barrier. It surrounds the reactor and other equipment in contact with highly radioactive materials. The containment structure extends well below the ground. The reactor vessel, where fission takes place, is a thick steel cylinder that contains the fuel assemblies.

All nuclear plants are conservatively designed and built with many safety systems and emergency back-ups.

Radiation

Radiation is energy emitted in tiny waves or particles. You can't see radiation. You can't hear or taste radiation.

For these reasons, people sometimes think radiation is mysterious or frightening. We know a great deal about it. Heat, light and radio waves are kind of radiation. Rocks, trees and even people have some radioactive atoms.

The atom—the basic building block of the universe—is the universal source of radiation. All things are made of atoms.

All atoms are made of even smaller particles: protons, electrons and neutrons. These particles are joined tightly together. Any time this bond is broken, energy is released. This energy is called radiation.

Radiation sometimes produces charged particles in material it strikes. Charged particles are known as ions. Ionizing radiation can produce charged particles in all matter.

Ionizing radiation and the human body

A small amount of radiation entering the body might occasionally separate individual atoms or parts of atoms from the body cells. This creates a tiny area of cell damage, which the body repairs as it would any other cell.

Because of aging or disease, body cell-repair goes on all the time. But a very large dose of radiation will damage large numbers of the body's cells faster than the body can repair them or produce new cells.

Radiation concerns

Government regulations limit the radiation dose the public can receive from nuclear generating plant-related operations to no more than 100 millirem a year above natural background levels. NMC nuclear plants have never approached the 100-millirem limit.

Below is a chart which shows sources and amount of background and man-made ration.

Source: National Council on Radiation Protections and Measurements NCRP-93 Tables 24 and 5.1

On the average, people receive about 300 millirem a year from natural background radiation sources and an additional 60 millirem of radiation from man-made sources.

One might think that since the United States is so industrial, it would have the most background radioactivity in the world. But this is not the case. Certain areas in Brazil have an annual background radiation level of 13,000 millirem a year.

Factors such as elevation, soil makeup and building materials enter into the amount of radiation does we receive.

In additional, a person receives about 3.5* millirem a year from the average home, depending on building materials. (An individual receives a little more radiation dose from brick, slightly less from wood.)

Granite, from which many downtown buildings are made, could increase an occupant's dose by 100 millirem a year.

*Source: National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements NCRP-56 Table 15

Potassium iodide

Potassium iodide keeps the thyroid gland from taking in radioactive iodine. But this medication does not protect the body from other radioactive materials. If an iodine threat happened, officials would recommend evacuation. Potassium iodide then would not be needed. But emergency workers—fire fighters, police—in high risk areas might be asked to take the medication.

Radio Stations

Each station is a member of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). This system allows local and state officials to interrupt local programming with emergency information.

If a siren is activated for an accident at the nuclear power plant, an EAS message will be broadcast immediately by local stations that are operating at that time of day.

Recovery specifics

Recovery is the "cleanup" after a nuclear emergency. It is the way we reduce radioactive materials in the environment to acceptable levels. Officials will tell you how to decontaminate your animals, food and property, if necessary.

The local Emergency Management Office, Extension Service, State Department of Agriculture, ASCS and state and local health departments will work with farmers and farm organizations to determine whether products are safe for marketing.

Contamination

An area contaminated by radioactive materials after a radiological accident might present a long-term problem. The longer they remain in the soil, the more likely plants will absorb them. Then contaminated vegetables, fruit tress, grains and forage might enter the food chain of animals and people.

If there is any possibility your land is (or could become) contaminated, emergency officials will test it and recommend long-term protective actions.

Efforts will be made to establish an insurance office within 48 hours after declaration of an emergency. Area residents and property owners will be eligible for reasonable emergency related expenses that result directly from the nuclear accident. Reimbursements will be made for immediate and reasonable out-of-pocket living expenses, such as food, lodging, transportation (mileage), lost wages and emergency medical treatment. There also will be coverage for bodily injury and property damage. Media announcements will give locations of insurance claims offices.

Plant action

During an emergency, nuclear plant staff will work to shut down the plant to prevent, or minimize, any release of radioactivity. NMC will immediately inform state and county officials about the accident.

Both NMC and state personnel will monitor radiation levels and notify the governor. The governor, along with state emergency management and the health department will assess the situation and give radio and television people emergency instructions for the public. People might be advised no danger exists or that they should take shelter or evacuate. The local sheriff could order an evacuation earlier if there is an immediate threat to public health and safety.

It is important to note that a nuclear plant cannot explode like a bomb. Nuclear plants do not have enough of the right concentration of radioactive material to produce a nuclear explosion.