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“Officials for FEMA and the NRC said they are still studying whether Japan’s experience points to the need for further changes in the United States” 

dated May 16 - AP long investigation

They also say:

Without fanfare, the nation’s nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away.

An AP investigative series in June exposed weaknesses in the U.S. emergency planning program. The stories detailed how many nuclear reactors are now operating beyond their design life under rules that have been relaxed to account for deteriorating safety margins. The series also documented dramatic population growth around nuclear power plants and limitations in the scope of emergency exercises. For example, local authorities assemble at command centers where they test communications, but they do not deploy around the community, reroute traffic or evacuate anyone as in a real emergency [!!!!!!]

. . .  community planners wonder why local forces won’t have to practice repelling an attack [!!!!] along with plant security guards – something federal emergency planners acknowledge could be necessary in a real assault. . . .

. . .  some planning exercises incorporate a reassuring premise: that little or no harmful radiation is released . . .

. . .   required 50-mile planning exercises will now be held less often: every eight years, instead of every six years. . .

. . .   the revisions also favor limiting initial evacuations, even in a severe accident. . . .

The U.S. government recommended that Americans stay at least 50 miles from the Japanese plant. Government officials said the same kind of action could be taken domestically in a similar accident, but advance planning for U.S. evacuations is, in fact, restricted to 10 miles.

This is reassuring (snort) – The comfortably staffed and well funded LOCAL civil servants are going to be ” practicing critical capabilities, even though they won’t need to measure and respond to radiation“ and they’ll get no FEMA or NRC staff or help while they’re at it. Because they are so comfortably staffed and well funded no doubt! And nuke plants NEVER release radiation in a plant emergency or earthquake or terror attack.

Great reporting is by Jeff Donn, emphasis in type add by the F.C.

Read it all here – http://www.wmctv.com/story/18432037/ap-impact-evacs-and-drills-pared-near-nuke-plants

AP: we are reproducing parts of the story under the Fair Use provision of the copyright law.