The National Nuclear Security Administration was to conduct low-altitude helicopter flights March 16 through March 19 over the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio, the agency said in an email last week.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last July extended the operating license for the Vistra Corp. nuclear plant by 20 years.
The NNSA’s aerial measuring system conducts preventative radiation missions in preparation for high-profile events, including the Super Bowl, political party conventions, and the presidential inauguration.
The public in Perry, Ohio may see a Leonardo AW-139 helicopter, equipped with radiation-sensing technology, flying at low levels over the city, NNSA said. “These aerial radiation surveys are a normal and routine part of security and emergency preparedness activities,” the agency added in its press release.
NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST), which conducts these flights, is part of the Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation, which aims to provide early threat indications, inform of nuclear materials globally, and prevent adversaries from obtaining and detonating a nuclear device.
“The DOE/NNSA NEST Consequence Management Program regularly conducts outreach events with state and local emergency planners and response agencies,” an NNSA spokesperson said in an email to Exchange Monitor, adding that there was no threat involved. “Locations with nuclear power plants are required by FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] to demonstrate that they have the capability to respond in case of an emergency at the plant. Every 8 years a more intense exercise involving the whole emergency response community is performed to test the coordination and communication between these assets.”
NNSA added, “because of the long times between these exercises, an outreach is conducted to inform/remind organizations of their roles, and the external resources that are available in the event of a large-scale accident. DOE/NNSA NEST is one of the major resources that will come from the Federal government to provide support in an accident.