Entergy says it will meet new deadline for their new Indian Point warning system

Entergy says it will meet new deadline for their new Indian Point warning system
Cortlandt Manor – August 24 is now the magic day for Entergy to have the new 150-siren alert system ready. Director of Emergency Planning Mike Slobidien told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday night that deadline is doable, and that includes having backups if there are problems with any of the sirens.
“If the sirens are out of service, it’s a great concern to us, but there are multiple means of making notification to the public,” he said.
The new system has a lot of features the old system does not have, including independent and redundant backup batteries for each siren. Using a form of ‘reverse-911’ outbound calls would be the ultimate backup, if there are problems.
Dan O’Neill is mayor of the Village of Buchanan, hometown to the nuclear reactors.
“I am also am happy that the notification system according to Westchester County officials will not only concern Indian Point, but other areas of essential danger like the Croton Dam and the Kensico Dam.”
Westchester County Emergency Services Commissioner Anthony Sutton, representing the four counties in the alert radius, said they hope things work out, this time. “We remain to be skeptical because we’ve lived this experience for many years now with the old siren system and with the construction and implementation of the new siren system. We’re cautiously optimistic. We’re committed to working with Entergy and the regulators to get it done because it’s really an important part of our system.”
NRC Regional Administrator Sam Collins said the really important point now is for Entergy, which earlier this year was fined $130,000 for missing the first deadline, to show significant progress.
“As a regulatory agency, we get down to the 24th and the system is operable but hasn’t completed all the internal reviews, we want to be able to say ‘that’s reasonable’, and an extension is or is not warranted going forward in that approach. Planning in the window is very important as far as working with FEMA to insure that adequate time for review, the data submitted on time is accurate, whatever support is appropriate to reasonably attempt to meet that schedule.”
The two-hour discussion involving the Entergy, the NRC and FEMA, was followed by a public comment period, but attendance was sparse. Only about 40 people, compared to about 300 who packed the same banquet hall for the relicensing kick-off meeting two weeks ago.