MADISON - Wisconsin emergency officials want to spend
nearly a million dollars to bolster training for nuclear accidents after responders made at least a half-dozen mistakes during training.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluated a training exercise at the Kewaunee nuclear power plant in December 2007.

The agency's report documented a number of shortcomings, including volunteer field teams that didn't realize they had been exposed to
too much radiation, inaccurate radiation readings and wrong information distributed to the public.

The mistakes were corrected in a make-up exercise.

But the state Military Affairs and Health Services departments want lawmakers' permission to spend $800,000 in the upcoming state budget to hire a nuclear training specialist in each agency.

The money would come from an emergency readiness fund set up by the companies that run nuclear plants in Kewaunee, Point Beach and Red Wing, Minnesota.