Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear power plants, like many sorts of industrial facilities, involve the use of hazardous materials. But unlike other facilities, the nation’s 103 nuclear power plants are required to have detailed emergency plans to protect the public in the event of an accident that could result in the release of radioactivity. Emergency plans for nuclear power plants are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which supervise graded exercises of those plans. The Bureau of Emergency Management is responsible for maintaining New Hampshire’s nuclear plant emergency plans. Those plans are reviewed and updated annually.

New Hampshire has one nuclear power plant, Seabrook Station in Seabrook, located within its borders and another plant, Vermont Yankee, located nearby in Vernon, Vermont. Both plants have 10-mile Emergency Planning Zones around them where emergency planning is concentrated.

The Seabrook Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) includes 17 New Hampshire towns, all in Rockingham County: Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, New Castle, Newfields, Newton, North Hampton, Portsmouth and Rye. There are also six Massachusetts towns in the Seabrook EPZ.

For residents interested in learning more about the NH Radiological Emergency Response Program and its role with the Seabrook Station, please visit this site: http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/radiological/emergency.htm

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission arranged for each individual who lives or works in the 10-mile radius area surrounding either Seabrook Station or Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants to receive one 130-mg tablet of potassium iodide (KI) to use in the event of a radiological emergency. The 10-mile radius area is known as an Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ). For more information on obtaining KI tablets and their uses, please visit: http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/radiological/ki.htm

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