Nuclear power plant emergency response team
A nuclear power plant emergency response team is an incident response team composed of plant personnel and civil authority personnel specifically trained to respond to the occurrence of an accident at a nuclear power plant.
Each nuclear power plant is required to have a detailed emergency plan. In the event of a potential accident, the ERT personnel are notified by beeper and have a set time limit for reporting to their duty station.
Potential duty stations include:
- The nuclear power plant's Control Room
- The nuclear power plant's Emergency Operations Facility
- An offsite operations facility
- A news center
- Roving teams of health physicists who scan for possible radiation
- Police traffic direction
In the United States, ERT personnel are required to train twice a year and typically train four times. The Federal Emergency Management Agency grades some of the drills. The drills normally are not announced in advance so as to simulate "surprise" conditions.
