ML20211N452

Discusses County Participation in 860604 four-county Emergency Preparedness Drill.During drill,15 of 49 Alert Sirens Failed.Recommends That Computerized Verification Sys Be Installed W/Monitoring Stations at Each of 49 Sirens

ML20211N452
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	06/20/1986
From:	Jeffery Grant ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY
To:	Palladino N Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
References
CON-#386-692, CON-#386-834 2.206, SP, NUDOCS 8607030100
Download: ML20211N452 (2)

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CO U NTY O F R OC K L A gD. & UTIL FAC.....

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I h OFFICE OF THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE

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A!!ison Parris County Office Building ,

. New City, New York 10956 00W' m U3NRC

.lotis I Gun t (914)638-5122 June 20,1986

'86 JtN 26 A10:17 Nunzio J. Palladino, Chairman GFFlcc or '

United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission 00CXETisG'i[Es Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel gaan;9 [-

Washington, DC 20555

Dear Mr. Palladino:

On June 4,1986, Rockland County participated in a Four County Emergency Preparedness Drill.

During that drill 15 of the 49 alert sirens failed,11 of those sirens located in the llamlet of New City, in the Town of Clarkstown. New City is one of the more heavily populated and developed sections of our County, with a busy commercial area, and serves as the government seat for both the Town of Clarkstown and Rockland County.

Official notification that the sirens had failed to sound was first furnished to the Joint News Center in Westchester County by Con Edison officials at approximately 2:40 PM. This is-particularly upsetting since Con Edison has advised us that they had personnel stationed at each siren to monitor its performance. The sirens should have sounded at 8:45 AM.

With the acknowledged difficulty of an evacuation of the 10 mile zone even if all systems worked perfectly, I consider the failure of almost one out of every three sirens to be a major system failure in the alert and notification procedure. I further consider this failure to consti-tute a real and present danger to the safety and health of the people of my County.

Since the siren failure, our Office of Emergency Preparedness and officials from Indian Point 11 have taken steps to hopefully remediate the problem and a full scale test of the sirens will be conducted again on June 28,1986.

Even if the test on the 28th proves successful, I am not satisfied that the problem will have been corrected in such a way as to insure that such a system failure does not occur again.

I want to stress that I am not interested in placing blame for this failure. I am interested in the safety of the people of my County and therefore recommend for your consideration and action the following:

1. The continued operation of the Nuclear Power Plants at Indian Point without a proven and effective alert / notification system is a potential danger. I therefore recommend that both Indian Point Plants reduce their reactor activity to a level that will compensate for what is in fact an unreliable alert / notification system and remain at the reduced level of activity until the following has been accomplished:

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9 Nunzio J. Palladino, Chairman Page 2 June 20,1986 United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission A) Three successive tests monitored by FEM A demonstrate 100% reliability of the alert / notification system.

B) A computerized verification system is installed with monitoring stations at each of the 49 sirens, and a console installed at the Rockland Emergency Operation Center.

2. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other appropriate agencies concerned with the operation and licensing of Nuclear Power Plants, and the safety of residents residing in the proximity of those plants establish stringent, and clearly defined standards for the operation, testing, and verification of alarm / notification systems.

I would appreciate your immediate consideration of these recommendations as I am sure you would agree that the safety of our citizens is and must remain our primary concern.

Sincerely, O s-O( JOIIN T. GRANT County Executive JTG/dh W