February 24, 2006
Entergy Selects Vendor for New Community Warning and Siren System
White Plains-Entergy formally notified Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties and New York State Emergency Management Office in a letter to each today of the selection of ATI to provide and install the new siren alert notification system for the Indian Point Energy Center. Said Oscar Limpias, Entergy Nuclear Vice President--Engineering, "The letter is merely a formality since the counties we've been working with are aware of the selection of ATI, but we're pleased now to formally notify the contractor and the public."
Founded in 1981, Acoustic Technology, Inc. (ATI) of Boston, Massachusetts has been developing hardware and software for wireless community warning systems since 1987. The advanced software for the system being employed at Indian Point reflects 15 years of development and refinement. ATI's system is used at two other Entergy nuclear power plants where it has operated effectively and reliably.
Several factors lead to the selection of ATI, which was chosen with the four counties' awareness and input into the criteria used to select the vendor:
- NRC and FEMA guidance driven by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, legislation calling for back-up batteries, sponsored by U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton;
- The level of expertise and experience demonstrated by the vendor;
- Concerns shared by the counties in several meetings regarding the existing notification system that would need to be addressed in a new system;
- Feedback, reviews, and analyses obtained from Giuliani Partners and siren system users at several Entergy plants and others in the industry;
- Technical, engineering, and project management expertise provided by Entergy staff. The system that Entergy will be providing new to the counties will have several reliable, tested, and proven features:
- Two banks of two rechargeable back-up batteries, four in all, for each siren;
- Electronic, omni-directional sirens (no mechanical parts susceptible to problems such as the siren rotation difficulties experienced with the current system);
- Redundant communications for siren activation, using radio, telephone, and cell phones, with satellite capabilities to supplement cell phone coverage;
- Control system capable of activation of individual sirens or groups, reporting siren status, and interconnecting to a common alerting protocol (CAP) server;
- A silent-testing feature that sounds the sirens at a pitch inaudible to the human ear but would show the sirens sounded (scheduled audible testing will continue to familiarize the public with the sirens);
- At the company's expense, Entergy additionally will provide to the counties CAP servers to be used at their discretion and under their control for transmitting messages to televisions, radios, telephones, cell phones, pagers, Blackberries®, and computers (e-mail) during more likely or common weather related events and accidents.
Soon after purchasing the two Indian Point plants in 2000 and 2001, Entergy invested about $4 million to complete an upgrade to the existing siren system started by Indian Point 2's previous owner. Entergy added a computerized communications system that reports back to the counties whether or not the sirens received the radio signal to activate, rotated, and sounded. Before installing that capability, the counties did not know if each siren worked unless they assigned someone to be physically at each of the 156 locations and report back the results. Those additional features, however, proved to be unreliable. Subsequent communications problems in the phone system and the need for back-up batteries lead to Entergy's decision to replace the whole system and provide the counties with additional emergency notification capabilities.
Said Limpias, "We were frustrated when what we thought was a significant enhancement turned out to be unreliable. Though the siren system operated better than before, it clearly did not meet Entergy standards or the public's expectations. The counties had a right to complain and now, with their help, we believe we are providing the best system out there."
The new system is expected to cost about $10 million, with no pass-along cost to ratepayers, taxpayers, or the public.