The Calvert County Department of Public Safety, along with officials from several county and state agencies, will participate in a Biennial Emergency Preparedness Exercise with the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant on Tuesday, October 20. The exercise will test Maryland's ability to respond to an emergency at the nuclear facility.

Participants in the exercise will include representatives from county and state governments, Constellation Energy – which owns Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant – and other agencies. Emergency responders will engage in a scenario in real time to test their ability to take action in an emergency incident. Maryland counties within the 10-mile emergency-planning zone around the plant will participate in the exercise, along with the following government agencies: the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Representatives from FEMA will evaluate state and local emergency response capabilities.

The exercise is one element of Calvert County’s emergency preparedness program established to help assure the safety of the residents living in the vicinity of Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. If an emergency situation required residents in the 10-mile emergency planning zone to take action, sirens and tone-alert weather radios would sound to alert residents to turn on their radios and televisions and tune into an Emergency Alert System (EAS) station. EAS stations are listed in the Public Emergency Response Information calendar mailed annually to emergency planning zone residents by Constellation Energy and in the public safety section of the Calvert County Web site at www.co.cal.md.us.

The biennial exercise is one of many emergency preparedness drills that Calvert County routinely participates in with the Calvert Cliffs plant. These exercises provide an opportunity for state and county emergency responders to enhance skills in mobilization, communication and response in the unlikely event of an accident at Calvert Cliffs.

For more information on emergency planning in Calvert County, visit www.co.cal.md.us or call (410) 535-1600, ext. 2638.