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Emergency Response Personnel Conduct Joint Exercise
 Approximately 650 people from the Department of Defense and
Department of Energy took part in a 1981 weapons accident training
exercise, in Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site.
The purpose of the exercise was to put into action a planned response to
a nuclear accident.
The scenario involved a simulated crash of an Army helicopter
transporting nuclear weapons to a storage site. The helicopter crashed
near the fictitious town of Wahomie, and the crash scattered radioactive
material over a portion of the mock town set up in Area 25. To ensure
realism, small radioactive radium-223 and mercury-197 sources were
hidden for searchers to locate.
The exercise was also the first federally-sponsored nuclear weapons
accident exercise with participation from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and the State of California.
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