JERUSALEM, Israel -- The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command will hold an emergency response drill at the Dimona Nuclear Facility in the Negev Desert this week.

The exercise -- dubbed Fernando -- will simulate a missile attack on the plant itself or the area surrounding it.

The IDF began planning the exercise in the wake of Japan's problems at its nuclear facilities damaged by the tsunami in March.

The drill is named after a 1959 nuclear meltdown in the San Fernando Valley. It took took a month to get the plant back under control and another 50 years to rid the facility of contamination.