“Local communities are well protected,” a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spokesman said in describing how Alabama Power and Southern Nuclear employees performed during a recent drill that simulated a terrorist attack on Farley Nuclear plant near Dothan.

FEMA spokesperson Conrad Burnside made the comment during a public meeting in which the agency announced its positive assessment of the “hostile action” drill that took place last month at Plant Farley.

Hundreds of representatives from Alabama Power, Southern Nuclear and multiple state and local agencies in Alabama, Georgia and Florida participated in the drill, during which terrorists crashed a hijacked commercial jet into the plant.

“During a hostile action exercise, we must demonstrate our ability to defend our plant site against an act that could include the use of force to destroy equipment, take hostages and/or intimidate our personnel,” said Jim Dixon, Southern Nuclear acting fleet emergency preparedness manager. “We must prove that we have the onsite ability to protect our employees and plant operations while working with offsite state and local emergency responders, and federal, state and local agencies.”

The drill began with reports about an aircraft diverted from its course and headed toward restricted airspace around Plant Farley. Attempts to communicate with the aircraft failed.

Plant Farley personnel declared an “Alert” and manually shut down the plant’s two generating units. Following procedures, plant employees were instructed to “duck and cover” as the plane approached.

The simulation escalated when terrorists damaged offsite transmission lines. Then the aircraft crashed into the plant’s diesel generator building, missing the plant’s nuclear reactors but causing a fire, injuring employees and cutting onsite power. Plant officials declared a “Site Area Emergency” and then a “General Emergency” – the most serious emergency classification described by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Meanwhile, plant operators concentrated on restoring power to the plant’s generators to cool the reactors.

State and local law enforcement and emergency management agencies participated in the exercise, as well as fire and rescue departments. “Mock” reporters covered the event and participated in news briefings held in the Joint Information Center in Dothan. Customer service and social media teams at Alabama Power’s headquarters in Birmingham fielded mock resident calls and responded to mock Facebook and Twitter posts about the events. Community response teams tracked down and dispelled rumors, reassuring community residents.

Burnside said overall, the many drill participants performed well, with the NRC noting just a single shortcoming out of the numerous requirements plant operators had to meet during the simulation. The one failure: plant operators moved too slowly in declaring the General Emergency as the event escalated.

The NRC requires nuclear power plants to conduct a hostile action emergency exercise at least once every eight years.