Accident prevention exercises held at nuclear power plant
By Gherman Solomatin

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 28, 2004 Tuesday 5:25 AM Eastern Time

MOSCOW, September 28 — More than 1,000 specialists participate in
accident prevention exercises at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant
in the Sverdlovsk Region.

More than 50 units of special equipment are used in the training,
exercises head Nikolai Sorokin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. He was at
the emergencies centre of the Rosenergoatom concern.

The plant personnel began the exercises on Tuesday morning to deal
with a severe accident at the fast-neutron reactor.

According to the scenario, a pipeline with sodium was unsealed,
and it could cause fire of inflammable substances. The radiation
situation worsened at the third reactor.

Such exercises are held regularly every year, and a situation not
foreseen in instructions is invented every time to deal with possible
accidents.

The plant personnel is trained in the current exercises to deal with
an accident by own forces, to cooperate with mass media and evacuate
people from adjoining areas, Sorokin said.

Eighteen experts from France, the United States, China, Ukraine and
Armenia watch the training.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is reported about the exercises.