Oyster Creek Emergency Zone Siren System Repaired Following Malfunction

Oyster Creek Generating Station recently addressed malfunctions with its sirens in the emergency planning zone.

At approximately noon on Friday, July 13, it was determined during a conference call with the siren vendor for Exelon Corporation, the owner and operator of the nuclear power plant, that the sirens “may be unreliable,” an event notification said.

It was during a daily test, which doesn’t involve actually sounding the sirens, that an interference with the signal that would be used to activate the sirens during a real emergency was discovered, said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The interference with the signal would have prevented the sirens from working at that time.

“Exelon subsequently changed to another frequency and resolved the problem pending restoration of the normal signal,” he said.

As of Saturday, July 14, all 42 sirens within the Emergency Planning Zone were restored to a reliable status.

“The situation has been rectified,” plant spokeswoman Suzanne D’Ambrosio said. “The sirens weren’t completely inoperable. The sirens themselves were operable.”

D’Ambrosio explained that according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) radio waves traditionally go in a straight line but as a result of meteorological forces, particularly in areas close to large bodies of water, the radio waves may bounce around, interfering with other radio frequencies.

“It was unreliable but that doesn’t mean the sirens wouldn’t have necessarily worked,” she said. “It was cause for concern…It was a very conservative act for all of us to put this whole plan into action.”

Due to the malfunction, an 8-hour report was required since there was potential “Loss of Emergency Preparedness Capabilities.” Another four-hour report was required since government agencies were contacted, the event notification said.

For troubleshooting and reporting purposes, the FCC was contacted and reviewed the cause for the signal interference.

The NRC resident inspector was informed and Exelon notified the NRC Operations Center upon full-restoration of the siren system. Sheehan said the NRC would follow up on efforts to resolve the problem.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and the Ocean County Office of Emergency Management were also contacted and reviewed the incident to institute compensatory actions.

“In the interim, there were methods that could be taken to keep [the signal interference] from affecting the sirens,” D’Ambrosio said.

If sirens are malfunctioning, the back-up plan would be to revert to “route alerting,” Sheehan said.

“This would entail emergency responders, armed with loudspeakers, driving along pre-designated routes to notify members of the public of an emergency at the plant,” he said.

The state and county Offices of Emergency Management would notify residents and businesses of an event, D’Ambrosio said.

“The state and the county Offices of Emergency Management are very well versed in using this,” she said. “They would have been ready to use it if necessary.”

D’Ambrosio emphasized that the sirens aren’t an indication that residents are supposed to evacuate but a notification that they should tune into emergency television and radio stations and listen for further information.

Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch has recommended the plant install a solar generated system to avoid any future malfunctions, Edith Gbur said.

“I just think that would solve a lot of problems if there was an urgency,” she said. “Why use [route alerting] when they can get something that could respond immediately?”

A representative from the FCC did not return calls for comment.