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Devonport offsite emergency plan

The Ministry of Defence, operates, berths and maintains nuclear powered submarines and warships in Devonport. The Devonport Site covers the land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd (DRDL). This includes the Dockyard Port of Plymouth. 

The Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019 (REPPIR) place a duty on local authorities, where there is a regulated nuclear establishment, to protect the public in the unlikely event of a radiation emergency.

REPPIR requires the MOD and DRDL, the Devonport Site operators, to have emergency plans in place. It also obliges local authorities to provide prior information to people who live, or work, in the area surrounding the Devonport Site who may be affected by a radiation emergency.

The off-site emergency plan for the area around the Devonport Site is called the Devonport off-site Emergency Plan (DOSEP).  This plan is drawn up by Plymouth City Council.

DOSEP gives details of the roles to be played by the MOD, DRDL, the emergency services and other responding agencies in the event of a radiation emergency.

Plymouth City Council, Cornwall Council and Devon County Council have determined specific areas around the Devonport Site, the off-shore berths and anchorages to which the off-site plan is applied.  These are the detailed emergency planning zones and the outline planning zones.  

The detailed emergency planning zones are areas around the Devonport Site, which extend to a minimum distance of 1.5km from the operational submarine berths.

The outline planning zones are areas around the Devonport Site, which extend to a distance of 5km from a central point in the site. The outline planning zones are areas intended to support responding agencies’ decision making, allow the detailed planning to extend to particularly vulnerable groups in the outline planning zone.

In defining these areas the Plymouth City Council worked with the MOD and DRDL, the operators, who considered the potential consequences should an incident occur.  The operators’ consequences reports are available below.

Plymouth City Council provides prior information to people who live or work in the area surrounding the Devonport Site, the offshore berths and anchorages who may be affected by a radiation emergency.

The booklet "What You Should Do if There Is a Radiation Emergency at the Devonport Site’’, is published every three years and distributed to households and businesses in the detailed emergency planning zone. 

If you are a resident or a local business in the area, you can sign up to our Emergency Notification System 'warning and informing' text messaging service. This system will notify you in the very unlikely event of a nuclear emergency.

Plymouth Warn and Inform Emergency Notification System

If you live or work in the area, you can sign up to our free Warning and Informing System. The system will notify you in the very unlikely event of an emergency at the sites by voice or text message. To find out more visit: https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/plymouth-warn-and-inform-emergency-notifica…