Health centre has excellent response during Huron Resolve nuclear emergency exercise

The South Bruce Grey Health Centre provided excellent response during the "Exercise Huron Resolve" nuclear emergency drill, held last week in Kincardine and area.

The regional emergency management exercise involved Bruce Power, numerous agencies and officials, as well as all levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal.

During the full-scale mock drill - an accident originating at Bruce Power causing a radiological release into the atmosphere - the health centre was able to test inter-operability with community partners and response to emergency issues, and also the organization's internal emergency response.

"We recognize the importance, for the well-being of our community, for the health centre to be prepared for any kind of situation, including a radiological emergency," said Paul Rosebush, health centre president and chief executive officer. "During this exercise, we were able to test our processes and responsiveness, and we found our ability to react to this kind of emergency, to be excellent.

"As a result of this exercise, we are now better prepared to deal with these kinds of situations in the future and we will continue to work with our partners on communication and operational readiness so that our community is always well-served."

Through this Huron Resolve exercise, Bruce Power, with assistance from the Office of the Fire Marshall and Emergency Management, was able to test its Emergency Response Organization (ERO) by simulating the multi-unit scenario. This required interaction amongst almost 500 people from about 30 municipal, provincial and federal organizations, also testing their emergency programs.

 

Joining Bruce Power, were the province and local municipalities, police, fire and health care partners. The exercise was designed to train, test and evaluate the area's collective capability to respond to the consequences of an emergency at the Bruce Power facility.

The scenario was based on a nuclear disaster and encompassed 93 hours of continuous play, with a focus on the Bruce Power Emergency Response Plan, the provincial Nuclear Emergency Response Plan and the federal Nuclear Emergency Plan, as well as the subsequent recovery and mitigating actions.

The local media had an opportunity to tour the various sites Thursday, including the Municipal Emergency Operations Centre located at the Lake Huron Learning Centre in Kincardine; the Emergency Worker Centre, and the Reception Evacuee Centre located at the Davidson Centre in Kincardine.

At the evacuee centre, volunteers and Kincardine District Secondary School students posed as evacuees, registering with the Red Cross, getting their lunch from the Salvation Army, and receiving medical care from St. John Ambulance.

The bus load of media toured through the vehicle decontamination area where the bus was washed and cleared to go. Then media personnel were given scenarios to depict through the various stations. Some members had become contaminated and had to be monitored and decontaminated before continuing through to registration.

“Since being formed in 2001, Bruce Power has continuously improved its emergency response capabilities through lessons learned from inside and outside the nuclear industry,” said Brian Hilbers, Bruce Power’s chief legal officer and vice-president, emergency management.

“Dozens of times per year our ERO – which consists of hundreds of members, and is widely considered a world-leader in the nuclear industry – undergoes real-time drills that test us to the greatest of our abilities. Another benefit of a scenario like Huron Resolve is that it allows us to interact with partners external to Bruce Power who would also play a major role in ensuring public safety in the unlikely situation of a real emergency on our site.”

 

Observed and evaluated by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Huron Resolve put Bruce Power’s ERO to the test, as it featured a scenario where multiple units in its four-unit stations were impacted. Though it’s highly unlikely a real-life situation could escalate to this point, practising every scenario imaginable is considered an opportunity for a learning organization such as Bruce Power, Hilbers said.

 

David Orazietti, Ontario minister of community safety and correctional services, said the province must always be ready to respond to natural and man-made disasters, to effectively minimize their impact and ensure the safety of families and communities.

 

“This type of large-scale emergency exercise provides an excellent opportunity to fully test our readiness, and to work with our partners to strengthen our collective capacity to respond."