“I have been an observer of the past three Indian Point radiation emergency “drills”. The November 14, 2006 exercise was a very professionally done protocol review, but it no more resembled a genuine drill than an architectural schematic resembles a building.

Thus to represent the exercise as proof that the Indian Point radiation emergency plan could save one life – much less hundreds of thousands – amounts to a fraud upon the public.

It is also worthy of note, that none of the pre-scripted scenarios I have seen involve a major emergency. A prime illustration of how significantly the events are underplayed, is that in the 2004 exercise, which involved a terrorist flown airplane hitting Indian Point property (but very conveniently missing the plant’s critical structures) the script indicated there was “no traffic in Westchester.” In this year’s script, hours after the public had been notified of a radiation release from Indian Point and the official declaration of a General Emergency (the highest nuclear incident category) had been officially declared, there was only “heavy traffic” flowing smoothly.

Were that only the case on a regular day, commuters would be overjoyed.

Michel Lee“