The State of Illinois has announced an emergency preparedness exercise at the LaSalle Nuclear Power station next month, November 15th, 2022. Emergency response personnel from the State of Illinois, LaSalle County, and Grundy County will be among those testing readiness in case of an emergency at the Power Station. Assessors from FEMA will be at the site to assess the readiness of the emergency response in the County. The Nuclear Power Station is located in Brookfield Township in LaSalle County, southeast of Ottawa, Illinois. It’s been in operation there since 1982 and operated by Constellation Energy since 1984. Since the start of the plant, there has been only one notable emergency.
In 2006, a Site Area Emergency was declared, the first such emergency at a Nuclear Power Station in America since 1991. Problems thankfully turned out to be related to indication sensors and not an actual or even potential meltdown. The problem was resolved in less than 4 minutes though the site was locked down for more than 4 hours to investigate the issues thoroughly. Since then, the Power Station Emergency Plan has been repeatedly tested to assure a quick response to any issues at the station.
