Large-Scale Nuclear Emergency Exercise Held at Russia's Beloyarsk NPP: Simulating Response to Concurrent Dual-Reactor Accident

The Beloyarsk NPP in Russia's Sverdlovsk Region launched a two-day comprehensive nuclear emergency exercise on October 6, 2026. The exercise is based on a hypothetical scenario of a natural disaster compounded by a reactor safety system failure, with a focus on emergency response and cross-departmental coordinated handling capabilities when two nuclear reactors experience severe accidents simultaneously.

The exercise is being conducted simultaneously at the Beloyarsk NPP site and the neighboring city of Zarechny, and is the largest annual comprehensive nuclear emergency drill in the Russian nuclear industry system and the Ural Federal District. Beloyarsk NPP Director Yuri Nosov informed local residents that during the exercise, air-raid sirens and loudspeaker broadcasts will be activated on site, accompanied by the operations of special chemical defense personnel and military special vehicles patrolling the streets. Residents are requested to maintain normal daily routines, and the plant's operating units will remain at normal power levels during the exercise.

This drill utilizes the full-scope simulators of Beloyarsk NPP Units 3 and 4 to conduct dual-unit accident simulation. Ground participating forces focused on advancing practical drills including emergency evacuation of surrounding residents, clearing of disaster debris, simulated firefighting, and the rapid establishment of radiation decontamination stations for personnel and equipment in the Zarechny urban area.

Participating forces include Rosenergoatom, Rosatom, the Russian Ministry of Defense's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, police, EMERCOM rescue forces, medical expert teams from the Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), nuclear plant professionals, and local administrative authorities, mobilizing over a thousand personnel in total. Ten foreign observers from Belarus and Kazakhstan were also invited to observe Russia's nuclear emergency response mechanisms on site.

In accordance with Russian federal nuclear safety regulations and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety guidelines, nuclear power plant operating organizations must conduct at least one large-scale comprehensive emergency exercise of this level annually, with emphasis on testing response to extreme conditions involving concurrent accidents at multiple units on a single site. The Beloyarsk NPP supplies approximately 16% of the Sverdlovsk Region's electricity, and the robustness of its emergency defense system is directly related to the baseline of regional energy and public safety.