Indian Point Siren Woes Raise Alarms

Indian Point siren woes raise alarms
By GREG CLARYTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 8, 2007)
The installation of new emergency sirens for Indian Point will be the topic of a public meeting tomorrow night in Cortlandt when nuclear plant officials update federal regulators on a $15 million project that has missed two deadlines this year and is losing the confidence of local emergency planners.
"They have a better chance communicating with the space shuttle than they do with their sirens," Rockland County Deputy County Fire Coordinator Dan Greeley said of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns the nuclear plants. "If they don't meet this next deadline, they need to look at re-engineering the entire system. The way it's going now isn't cutting it."
Greeley and his counterparts from the other counties in the 10-mile evacuation zone around the nuclear plants say that residents have complained during a series of test soundings that they can't hear the sirens, noting that the old system would rattle the windows in some areas.
The emergency planners say the weak link is the radio-frequency trigger used in the sophisticated system, which is required by law to be effective 94 percent of the time in case a power outage brings down the Internet-based portion.
Anthony Sutton, Westchester County's top emergency planning official, said he's also concerned that the continuing tests have desensitized the public's response to the sirens.
"The longer this takes, the less confidence we have in the system," Sutton said. "My outside perception is that they're struggling to put together a string of successful tests and then they're going to raise their hands and say, 'Don't touch anything.' It's like the old days of tuning a television with rabbit-ear antennas."
Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said the company agrees with the counties and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it needs to get the system to the point that local officials are comfortable with the 150 new sirens.
He said the daily score-keeping of which sirens work and which don't may create too much of a focus on details and not on the bigger picture.
"We understand the counties' concerns," Steets said. "I think their concerns have grown from the multiplicity of tests that we've done over the past few months, but ultimately we believe those sirens will meet their requirements."
He said company officials were still confident they could get the system installed by Aug. 24, the latest deadline set by the NRC.
Entergy missed a Jan. 30 deadline that regulators and company officials had agreed was ambitious, but then missed an April 15 deadline that cost the company $130,000 in fines.
NRC officials have said they would review the situation if another deadline is missed, but have not ruled out further financial and other sanctions.
Reach Greg Clary at gclary@lohud.com or 914-696-8566.


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A public meeting about the emergency sirens starts at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Colonial Terrace, 119 Oregon Road, Cortlandt. Directions are at www.colonialterracecaterers.com/directions.htm.
People planning to attend are advised that parking may be hard to find. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will staff informational tables an hour before the meeting starts.