Olkiluoto cleared out of people effectively in emergency response exercise on last week

The course of the exercise included, among others, testing the maintenance of a situational picture, communications, and decision-making in a situation where administrative networks and IT systems as well as a large part of normal communications had been lost.

On Tuesday, the exercise also covered the evacuation of the island with a lion’s share of Olkiluoto employees ordered to leave and continue working from home. As the exercise scenario did not involve an acute risk of emission or a threat, the employees could leave using their own means.

However, the number of personnel evacuated was lower than in normal circumstances due to it being the autumn break week in Satakunta and the fact that the employees had been sent an advance message advising them to work from home on Tuesday. The photo shown was taken on Tuesday about 15 minutes after the personnel had been ordered to go home. All in all, about 400 people left the island and the evacuation was carried out smoothly.

The same exercise scenario was repeated on both days to give valuable experience to as many members of the emergency response organisation as possible. Exercises related to safety and security are carried out on a regular basis in Olkiluoto aiming at ascertaining that all the safety, security, and emergency response arrangements required to secure nuclear safety are in place in Olkiluoto.

– As a whole, the exercise was completed successfully in many respects. We observed success in several areas but also found areas in need of improvement, which gives us an excellent opportunity to develop our operations and our preparedness to abnormal situations and conditions, says TVO’s Senior Corporate Security Expert Anni Lähdeoja who also wishes to thank everybody participating in the exercise.