Evacuated? That’s got to be the wrong word... The LAST thing we want terrorists thinking is that we evacuate nuclear power plants when there’s an attack...
“Evacuated? That’s got to be the wrong word... The LAST thing we want terrorists thinking is that we evacuate nuclear power plants when there’s an attack...”
If you have Muslim employees at your nuclear plant, and you are afraid to “single them out,” but know damn well they could go Sudden Jihad at any time, “evacuating” “everyone” sounds better.
You might be surprised at how few personnel are required to run a power plant. FWIW, some years ago, I worked in a six unit, 2 GW thermal (coal fired) power plant, the largest in Canada, East of Ontario. The Operator DOES NOT leave! PERIOD! Essential personnel DO NOT LEAVE! Non-residential personnel DO leave in an emergency. At that plant, excluding security staff, there were over two hundred employees on site during the day. During ‘plant turnaround’, at least 50 additional contractors were on site. At night, there were ten staff, including the shift supervisor.
The biggest difference between a nuke and a thermal plant is that the reactor replaces the boiler furnace and includes an additional steam ‘loop’ so that irradiated steam transfers it’s energy through heat exchangers, into non-irradiated steam to run the turbines. Since there is no concern about ash in a nuke, a nuke plant equivalent to the thermal plant I described, would likely only need seven to run the plant. I suspect the Belgian plant with a single nuke, might only require three operators, minimum. I cannot see them being evacuated.
The article says police and military are on scene, most likely checking for any potential for loss of life. There may be an additional operator or two at the plant, to ensure that the police and military do not accidentally do something that is unsafe for either them or the plant.