The highly important exercises codenamed, Mersad, were staged without prior notice and under the directions of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Chief Ali Akbar Salehi and based on a plan worked out by Director of the AEOI Nuclear Safety and Security Department and AEOI Civil Defense Committee director.
Different teams from AEOI Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Fordo Nuclear Site's Rescue and Fire Department as well as technical and engineering units took part in the drills which were conducted on the basis of a worst-case scenario.
Evaluation of personnel preparedness and alertness, test and assessment of equipment as well as reaction time and approaches to possible threats and upgrading personnel skills were announced among the main objectives of the drills.
Experts said the counter-sabotage drills at Fordo could be labeled as the most crucial and most effective exercises in the history of the country's civil defense.
Fordo is an underground uranium enrichment facility built deep under the mountains near the city of Qom in Northern Iran.
The nuclear site was used by Iran to produce 20-percent grade fuel for the Tehran research reactor which produces radioisotopes for cancerous patients after the world powers and the UN nuclear agency refrained from supplying fuel to the reactor even under tight IAEA monitoring and control.
Iran stopped 20-percent uranium enrichment in a voluntary move under the Geneva interim deal with the six world powers which was signed in November 2013, but came into practice in January 2014.
