Mass-Evacuation Tests at Nuclear Plants ‘Difficult,’ Jaczko Says

[Fledermaus]

Apparently the nuclear industry has no common sense. Why would someone build these things in heavily populated areas?

60 minutes to Fukushima. Turn the cooling water off and its 60 minutes to Fukushima.

Testing the evacuation of residents near U.S. atomic power plants would be difficult before an emergency, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.

Running “mass evacuations on a trial basis” is a challenge, Jaczko said today in Washington, answering a question from Ralph Nader, founder of Public Citizen, which opposes nuclear power.

Evacuation plans are being examined in the agency’s 90-day review after a 9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami knocked out power to reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, leading to the release of radiation.

Policy makers such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, say Entergy Corp. (ETR)’s Indian Point plant, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Manhattan, is too close to New York City and should be shut.