Two weeks left for Indian Point to meet new siren deadline

Two weeks left for Indian Point to meet new siren deadline
By GREG CLARYTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 9, 2007)
BUCHANAN - Two weeks from tomorrow is the deadline for Indian Point to have its new emergency warning system working, and plant officials remain hopeful they can deliver on time despite regulatory questions that remain unanswered.
Federal officials expect the notification system to be loud enough to be heard in each of the 150 areas covered by individual sirens and are requiring Entergy Nuclear, Indian Point's owner and operator, to ensure that.
The sirens are spread across the parts of Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties that fall within a 10-mile radius of the nuclear power plant.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's top regional official on the project said yesterday that the agency must be able to verify that minimum sound levels are reached or it won't approve the project by the Aug. 24 deadline.
"They have not proven to us that the siren system can meet our basic regulations and guidance for siren sound coverage throughout the emergency planning zone," Rebecca Thomson, branch chief for FEMA's radiological emergency planning group, said yesterday.
"They haven't provided us with any data to prove that," Thomson said. "What they provided is outdated and no good anymore because it was projected based on how the sirens were supposed to sound."
FEMA is acting on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees Indian Point's operation, including emergency planning.
Entergy officials said they were working to deliver the data FEMA needs in time to make the deadline and have moved ahead with local emergency staff training and other requirements as quickly as possible.
Training started this week, company officials said, and is expected to be finished by Aug. 21.
Entergy is up against its third deadline since agreeing to install a $15 million alert system in the fall of 2005.
The company asked for and received a 75-day extension from the NRC after regulators agreed that the project needed more time than the Jan. 30, 2007, deadline allowed.
The agency wasn't as forgiving after the company missed an April 15 deadline, fining Entergy $130,000 and requiring a plan to finish the project within a reasonable amount of time - Aug. 24 became the new target.
"I think we can resolve the issues that need to be resolved by then," Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said.
"We're certainly driving toward that."
At least one county official involved in the project is skeptical that the latest deadline will be met.
"I suspect that they will not resolve it by the 24th," said Anthony Sutton, Westchester County's commissioner of emergency services. "We didn't want to be in this place as we go toward the deadline."
One of the main questions is whether the sirens must meet a minimum of 70 decibels in louder areas and 60 decibels in quieter areas - or whether all sirens must be at least 10 decibels louder than background noise in each area.
Residents in the emergency planning zone have complained during months of siren testing that they can't hear the new sirens as well as they can hear the existing sirens.
Thomson said yesterday that field tests showed that some of the sound coverage falls as much as 44 percent short of what was designed.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency was aware of the remaining obstacles and was in daily contact with the nuclear plant about the sirens. He said NRC officials would continue to monitor the project's progress.
Thomson was complimentary of the new system, saying it would be one of the best of its kind in the country once it's installed properly. The current system will remain in operation until the new system is approved.
"The system is complex," Thomson said. "It's going to have a lot of bugs. We just can't say 'turn it on and make it the primary system' until we're convinced that the sound coverage is adequate."
Reach Greg Clary at gclary@lohud.com or 914-696-8566.


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Progress Energy Wins Ruling Associated With Shearon Harris Relicensing. Administrative Law Judges affiliated with the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board have rejected an effort by the North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network of Durham, N.C., and Nuclear Information & Resource Service, a Maryland organization, to include safety concerns in the consideration of a 20-year license extension for Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear plant, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The groups were expected to appeal the ruling. In the ruling, the judges declared that they could not consider the concerns in reviewing Progress Energy's relicensing application. Plant critics asserted that vulnerability to an airplane attack, fire safety failures, and a flawed emergency evacuation plan all needed to be considered as part of the review. This looks good for Indian Point. This precedent will invariably influence attempts by the enviro-nazis to intervene in the IPEC license extension effort. Have a great day! nuclear environmentalist
Posted by: nuclear environmentalist on Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:54 pm

Just a quick reminder, if you disagree with the previous anti-Hispanic, racist rant posted here by a member of PEON ( PRO ENTERGY and OPENLY NUCLEAR )
J WAYNE LEONARD C.E.O.
ENTERGY HEADQUATERS NEW ORLEANS La 70113
PHONE: 504-576-4000 fax: 504-576-4428
Posted by: ball on Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:45 pm

Mohammed El Baradei, nobel laureate, and acknowleged nuclear authority (head of IAEA) has written that in the matter of nuclear safety, we have to concentrate on doing what makes a difference, and not squander resources on things that only help marginally (or not at all). Now let us leave the world of knowlegeable nuclear expertise, and enter the universe of Hudson Valley politics, a world where it is of the utmost importance to replace a 100% functional siren system , with one that has batteries. It is estimated that a meltdown at Indian Point is a near certainty, once in every 20,000 years. For that great event, the old sirens will be entirely sufficient, except in the case of a national or regional blackout happening simultaneously with the meltdown. A regional blackout has happened in 1965, 1977, and 2003, for 3 in 42 years, or 7% chance of happening. Therefore adding the batteries ups our safety by a factor of 14, making it a near certainty that a (blackout + meltdown) will happen no more than once in the next 280,000 years. Whew! I feel so much better now! Thanks, Senator Hillary!
Posted by: VP_VP on Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:30 pm