A Site Emergency exercise was conducted at Kalpakkam, about 70 km from here, housing various nuclear reactors of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to test the defence preparedness of various agencies. The DAE Kalpakkam Centre has various units functioning like the Madras Atomic Power Station-MAPS (operated by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, which is under construction by BHAVINI, Nuclear Recycle Board,etc. Site Emergency Exercise is conducted at this Centre every year as a part of its Emergency Preparedness plan. The exercise, conducted yesterday, involved participation of more than 8,500 personnel in the site who were evacuated. The evacuation of the site personnel was accomplished within a time span of one-and-a-half hours. and the entire site emergency exercise lased two-and-a-half hours, an official release