By law, every nuclear power plant in the United States is required to conduct an emergency exercise every two years where federal officials evaluate the preparedness of local governments to respond to a radiological emergency. Following each exercise, FEMA presents the test results at a public meeting, which any interested citizen can attend. This year, the exercise for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will be conducted on April 2, and the public meeting will be held April 4, at 4 pm, at the Plymouth Public Library.According to a representative of the nuclear utility, FEMA will issue a pass or fail grade for the test. This sounds like a major change from evaluations conducted in past years, where FEMA evaluators issued grades in as many as three dozen different categories of effort, such as communications, mass sheltering, transportation and monitoring for radiation. A pass/fail grade would likely leave out details that are important for citizens to know.Anyone who lives in Plymouth Kingston, Duxbury and Carver, or elsewhere within 10 miles of the nuclear plant definitely should attend the April 4 meeting. If possible, read over local and state radiological emergency plans before the meeting. If the plans are not available to you, the meeting is a good place to request copies. Hopefully, someone will share the results with DAP, so that we can review them as a community.