Flexing emergency response muscles

Annually, Emergency Management plans one full-scale exercise, additional exercises, and multiple drills

Radioactive wasp nests discovered in South Carolina. Twenty tons of cheese spilling on a highway in Pennsylvania. Monkeys escaping an overturned semi-truck in Mississippi — none of these things have happened here — but they did happen. That’s why when Emergency Preparedness Specialist Kenton Falerios plans an emergency exercise, he doesn’t hold back. We live in a world where fish fall from the sky, so the exercises he invents have to be realistic, but also account for oddities that sometimes happen.

“There is a method to my madness,” Falerios said. “I try to think what could really happen when planning an exercise. I might watch a show, read a book, or someone might just come up and tell me something crazy, so I have my list that I call my exercise ideas. I try to make exercises realistic, but unique. Sometimes during exercises or drills, people will jokingly say, ‘when does Godzilla come in?’ or ‘when does the alien land?’. I try to keep the practice realistic, but sometimes reality is crazy.”

The Department of Energy requires the Emergency Management department to do one full-scale exercise annually to test and validate our plans, procedures, and responses. Groups practice response to certain hazards like fires, explosions, and chemical spills among many other potentially emergent situations. The exercises are based off the Maximum Limits List (ML2) and the Chemical Control Program. From those documents, a five-year exercise plan is developed including specific hazards that must be addressed. Full-scale exercises involve a whole-site response from any department that would be involved if the incident were real. Whether people are sheltering, evacuating, or responding, they are considered part of the exercise and should go through the motions the same way as if it were real.

“Each full-scale exercise is designed to have between three to four things happen,” Falerios said. “If folks are able to respond to, manage, and plan with multiple events at the same time, then when a real emergency happens, they’ll have the confidence to overcome that situation.”

In addition to the full-scale exercises, there are two additional exercises and multiple drills per year. Due to varying employee schedules, each person required to participate has an opportunity to join at least one exercise or drill. This ensures that Pantex satisfies requirements for DOE regulations and participation in the Emergency Response Organization (ERO). The ERO is a trained and qualified team of more than 200 Pantexans who are activated in the event of an operational emergency to respond to, mitigate, and recover from crises affecting the Pantex Plant. Even though there is a designated response group, all Pantexans should be proficient in emergency response by participating in full-scale exercises.

“One of the key factors to be successful in the event of an actual emergency is to constantly train,” Falerios said. “It needs to become muscle memory where we all know what to do, and to know what those around us are doing. Having the confidence in our equipment and the abilities of each other around us will help us get through emergency situations as they arise.”

Falerios has planned 31 exercises so far during his career at Pantex. Whether it’s a forklift dropping a load, an employee facing a medical emergency, or even a tornado of sharks, these practices provide employees with the skill and confidence necessary to respond effectively and appropriately — reinforcing that Pantex is capable of handling any emergency situation any day of the week.

“You don’t want to be the person who doesn’t know what to do or where to go when something is really happening,” Falerios said. “I think it’s important for people to partake in these exercises. I may be the guy who develops them, but they’re only successful because of the teamwork between Emergency Management and every person working here. Pantex Emergency Management could not effectively accomplish successful exercises or response without the support of Pantex volunteers and personnel.”