The dreaded scenario will be pushed to the limit. This Wednesday and Thursday, the Île Longue base where several French nuclear submarines are secretly kept will be the scene of a major security exercise. Nestled on the very wild Crozon peninsula (Finistère), this French military base is particularly monitored and protected. The exercise which will be carried out there for two days in order to “verify the ability of civil and military nuclear operators and public authorities to prevent all forms of risk that may weigh on people and the environment”.
According to France 3 Brittany, the disaster scenario will take place around a boiler room accident that occurred in one of the nuclear submarines. About 2,000 sailors and more than a hundred gendarmes will be involved in this exercise. The latter aims to prepare local and national civil and military teams for a possible nuclear incident. The prefecture will be able to test its new system there, called FR-Alert, which informs the population of the protective measures decided on and the instructions on how to behave. No evacuation or containment of the population is planned. As for the alert siren, it will not be triggered.
About 2,000 people work daily on the military base housing four ballistic missile submarines (SNLE). This highly strategic site is constantly monitored.