Improved results in tests of emergency sirens around Indian Point

Buchanan — Emergency sirens in the region around the Indian Point nuclear power plants showed some improvement in two tests on Nov. 15, with far fewer failures than in the two previous tests, the plants’ owner said. The 156 rotating, pole-mounted sirens, dotted around the four counties within 10 miles of the plants, are meant to notify residents if there is an emergency at the plants that might affect them. On the first test, just two of the 156 sirens failed to sound, Entergy Nuclear Northeast spokesman Jim Steets said. Both were in Rockland County. One failure was caused by a bad motor on the siren, Steets said, while the other was a communications failure, possibly interference with the radio signal that activates the sirens. That siren worked fine on the second test, but the one with the bad motor stayed quiet, as did four sirens in Westchester County. Those all were due to the same sort of communication failure, Steets said, and “We believe that if we signaled them again, they would sound.” In Orange and Putnam counties, all sirens worked in both tests. Last month, 10 of the 16 sirens in Orange failed to go off in one test, and in one test in September, none of Rockland’s 51 sirens responded. Steets said last week’s improved results would not affect Entergy’s pledge to replace the entire system with state-of-the-art equipment within two years.