NEW YORK, NY September 25, 2002 — The Indian Point Two nuclear power plant's bienniel emergency drills are typically conducted under close watch; the drills are evaluated by federal nuclear regulators and emergency response officials. Yesterday's drill, the first for the plant since September 11th, came with heightened scrutiny by the media, local government officials, and anti-nuclear activists. WNYC's Amy Eddings reports.

The drill began at 8:34 in the morning, with this fictional scenario: an offsite power outage causes the Indian Point Two nuclear reactor to automatically shut down. Only one of three emergency generators is working to cool the reactor core. While Entergy, the new owner of Indian Point Two, tries to keep the reactor from overheating, company, state and county officials hold fake media briefings at the Westchester County Airport, 20 miles away.

Westchester County Official: This is a test. The emergency alert system has been activitated by chief officials of Westchester, Orange, Rockland and Putnam Counties due to a technical malfunction at Indian Point Number Two in Buchanon, New York.

Under the fictional scenario, events snowball; radiation is released into the atmosphere for almost two hours, until the emergency generators powering the cooling system are fixed. Evacuations hypothetically begin in schools and neighborhoods within a ten mile radius from the plant. This fake emergency happens while federal monitors look on.

Steets: Today, they'll be testing the plant's ability to deal with equipment problems, to make appropriate calls on what is taking place, on whether they can notify county officials in a timely and accurate way.

Jim Steets is a spokesman for Entergy, which purchased Indian Point Two from Con Edison last year. Earlier, the company had purchased the reactor next door, Indian Point Three, from the New York Power Authority.

Steets: There's been a lot made of this drill and exercise following September 11th and a lot of the new scenarios that people have imagined. It's kind of an important day for us though -- Entergy, that is -- because we want to see how we managed the integration process.

But critics say the drill is based on slowly unfolding scenarios that were made irrelevant when terrorists crashed airplanes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. They say the evacuation plans for Indian Point's ten mile Emergency Planning Zone are unrealistic; with nearly 300-thousand people, this emergency zone is the most densely populated in the country. And, despite an instruction booklet that officials mail out each year, some residents say they're unprepared. Paul Feiner is the town supervisor of Greenburgh.

Feiner: In fact, some of the school districts in the town are supposed to be reception areas. And we haven't even been briefed. The school superintendents don't know what to do. They're having an evacuation drill, but the people who -- the foot soldiers -- we don't know our responsibilities.

Feiner was one of about 25 protestors who gathered outside the media briefing building at the Westchester County Airport. Their signs -- with slogans like "Chappaqua Parents Say, Get Real, Close Indian Point" -- were lying in the grass. Marilyn Elie, with the Citizens Awareness Network, told protestors that Westchester County officials would not allow them to hold up their signs, or chant.

Elie: We were told that we could not have a permit to be here, because it was Orange Alert, and because of security reasons, all protests are being denied. I mean, that is so chilling.

A Westchester County spokeswoman defended the decision to deny the group a permit. And she says school officials and others in the county have participated in extensive briefings on emergency procedures.

As for an ever-evolving, post-September 11th world, the NRC is considering drills involving a more rapid chain of events. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency's acting regional director, Joe Picciano, says that does not mean the current plan should be disregarded.

Picciano: The plan as it stands is a flexible plan. And the real key in planning, is the officials. The plan is the process. But it's those decision makers and the continuing training that's required that is the real key to making this go.

For many opponents of Indian Point Two, no amount of drills or tinkering with evacuation scenarios will dampen their fears. They want the plant closed. But neither FEMA nor the NRC have ever shut down a nuclear plant as a result of failing these emergency drills. That has led to a certain skepticism among some safe energy advocates, such as Eric Epstein. He heads the group Three Mile Island Alert.

Epstein: Our experience at Three Mile Island after twenty years is that they can't even get the sirens to work. The evacuation plan here is a cruel joke. I can't imagine it's any better at Indian Point. My advice to the community is to keep the pressure on, because no matter what the findings are at Indian Point, come hell or high water, the NRC will keep the plant on line.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and FEMA will release their preliminary evaluation on Friday. Entergy will be expected to address any weaknesses they point out before the next drill. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.