Japan's first counterterrorism drill simulating a drone attack on a nuclear power plant took place Monday in Ehime Prefecture.
Some 60 people from the police and Japan Coast Guard participated in the exercise at the Ikata nuclear power plant, which simulated a drone launched from a boat planting a makeshift explosive device on the premises of reactor 3.
Officials of Shikoku Electric Power Co., which runs the plant, and members of the bomb disposal unit in the Ehime Prefectural Police also took part.
"We took into account the serious situation regarding terrorism in conducting this drill, and I think it is important to prepare for the unpredictable," said Hideto Murase, the local security chief of the Ehime Prefectural Police.
Reactor 3 was restarted last August after clearing safety requirements introduced after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
The reactor runs on plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, which contains plutonium extracted by reprocessing spent fuel.
Shikoku Electric plans to finish building by March 2020 a facility that is capable of withstanding major terror attacks, such as those involving intentional aircraft crashes, and preventing the release of radioactive materials.
