ML20246M229
| ML20246M229 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 05/08/1989 |
| From: | Stello V NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Sutton J AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8905190073 | |
| Download: ML20246M229 (8) | |
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MAY 0 81988 Mr. James R. Sutton 1100 Wetherburn Drive f
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Dear Mr. Sutton:
I am responding to your letter of March 23, 1989, to Dr. Forrest J. Remick, Chairman of the Advisory Comittee on Reactor Safeguards. Dr. Remick forwarded your letter to me as it is more appropriate for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory i
Comission (NRC) staff to investigate your concerns.
In your letter, you expressed concerns regarding actuation of an emergency warning siren in the vicinity of your home in York County on March 17,1989.
You stated that you were unable to obtain information as to the reason for the alarm, and that you are concerned about a possible failure of the warning and information systems in your area in the event of a problem at the TMI facility.
My staff has made a thorough investigation of the event and its implications on the emergency notification systems in your area. The siren near your home is used for any. type of emergency affectIng your area and is under the opera-tional control of York County emergency personnel. The siren is part of a network of 79 sirens installed and maintained by the GPU Nuclear Corporation but under the operational control of the five counties surrounding the TMI
. site. Each county determines the need to actuate the emergency warning siren upon notification of an emergency at the TMI site from GPU or of non-nuclear emergencies such as tornado alerts or chemical spills identified from other sources. However, the counties rely on calls from the public regarding siren soundings resulting from malfunctions such as the one that occurred on March 17, 1989, be:ause the alam system does not include a trouble line feedback to the county or GPU. In the case of a malfunction, the early 911 callers assist
'the county in identifying the general location of the siren and whether the operation of the encoder central system successfully shuts off the siren.
When the siren near your home sounded on March 17, 1989, the York County officials responsible for operation of the siren recognized within a very short time that the alarm was due to a malfunction and tried to shut it off using the normal (ncoder control system. When this effort failed, the county notified GPU who then requested their maintenance contractor to dispatch a technician to the siren location to investigate the problem. By the time the technician arrived and disconnected electrical power to the siren, nearly O minutes had elapsed. However, within 10 minutes of the siren actuatia, urk County emergency personnel had informed radio station WSBA that the alarm was due to a malfunction, and WSBA made several announcements to this effect. A number of citizens reportedly also called the radio station or the county 911 number and were given this information. We were unable to determine why you were not given this same information.
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Mr.' James R. Sutton My staff has reviewed the emergency information brochure issued to all local residents by the county officials and found it to be adequate. They also discussed operation of the system under various circumstances with the appro-priate York County and GPU officials.
In the event of an actual emergency, nine radio stations and four television stations would be notified by the York County Emergency fianagement Agency to broadcast emergency information. On March 17, however, county personnel elected to notify what they considered to be the most widely listened-to station in the area as no actual emergency existed. A " rumor control" telephone number, (717) 854-5571, for York County is also listed in the published brochure and in the telephone directory to provide an additional way for citizens to obtain emergency information.
Mr. Robert Straw, York County Emergency Management Agency Director, at (717)C54-5571, and tir. Gordon Tomb, GPU Nuclear Communications Division, at (717)948-8812, can provide additional information on emergency information procedures. The NRC does not have legal authority to prescribe how local governments such as York County respond to spurious alarm actuations, but an expression of concern by local citizens could bring about a change in the procedures to prevent recurrence of the situation described in your letter.
Our assessment of this event is that it was an isolated malfunction of one siren, that York County officials took reasonable measures to inform concerned citizens of the malfunction, and that GPU Nuclear Corporation took prompt action to troubleshoot the malfunction. We have concluded that this event does not indicate a failure of the emergency information system that would be relied upon following an accident at the TMI facility.
The NRC takes seriously citizen comments regarding the effectiveness of emergency notification systems near nuclear power plants. You should not assume that future soundings of the siren near your home are due to malfunctions but should listen to the stations listed in the telephone directory or call the York County number listed above.
I hope this responds to your concern.
Sincerely, Cgid signed by Ec:or Steso, Jr.
Victor Stello, Jr.
Executive Director for Operations
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, FROM:
DUE: 04/28/89 EDO CONTROL: 0004408 DOC DT: 03/23/89 FINAL REPLY:
JAMES R.
SUTTON YORK, PA TO:
ACRS (Referred to EDO by 4/13/89 ACRS letter)
FOR SIGNATURE OF:
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Y DESC:
ROUTING:
CONCERNS RE TMI WARNING SIREN STELLO TAYLOR DATE: 04/14/89 THOMPSON BLAHA ASSIGNED TO:
CONTACT:
RUSSELL, RI NRP MURLEY SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OR REMARKS:
-PUP EDD-DN-- FOR-CONCURRENCE OE_ EINAL_LEIIER.
ADD ACRS TO DISTRIBUTION AND KEEP THEM INFORMED OF PROR: " % 4 .ORRECTIVE ACTIONS.
REF: EDO-4401 s
NRR RECEIVED: APRIL 14, 1989 ACTION:
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MURLEY/SNIEZEK MIRAGLIA CRUTCHFIELD ACTION PARTLOW GILLESPIE n sssURG DUE TO NRR DIRECTOR'S 0. '
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- ,a April 13, 1989 1
Mr. Victor Stello, Jr.
Executive Director for Operations U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555
Dear Mr. Stello:
SUBJECT:
LETTER FROM JAMES R. SUTTON DATED MARCH 23, 1989 REGARDING THREE MILE ISLAND WARNING SIREN During the 348th meeting of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Saf eguards, April 6-8, 1989, we considered the attached letter dated March 23, 1989, from Mr. James R. Sutton, who lives in the vicinity of the Three Mile Island plant.
Mr. Sutton expressed concern about the unexplained actuation of a siren near his home and the subsequent failure of the emergency information net. work to provide him with an understanding of the meaning of the siren warning.
Events of the type described in Mr. Sutton's letter reflect poorly on the industry's emergency planning efforts.
This appears to us to be a matter that the staff, in conjunction with the utility, should investigate and take appropriate corrective action.
In addition, a timely explanation should be provided to Mr. Sutton.
We wish to be kept informed on the progress made in resolving this matter.
Sincere Forrest J. Remick Chairman
Attachment:
Letter dated March 23, 1989, from James R. Sutton, York, Pennsylvania, to Forrest Remick, Chairman, Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards,
Subject:
Three Mile Island Warning Siren cc: The Honorable John Heinz The Honorable William Goodling United States Senate United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20515 The Honorable Arlen Specter The Honorable Robert P. Casey United States Senate Governor of Pennsylvania Washington, D.C. 20510 State Capitol Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120 mNOY N O 3 N I f*
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Dear Mr. Remick:
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.On March 17, 1989, at about 11:20 PM, the Three Mile Island warning l
siren located near my home sounded.
My home is located less than l
one mile from this siren.
.This siren continued to sound until about 12:10 AM_on March 18, 1989, for a total of about 50 minutes of continuous siren.
The purpose of this letter is to make you aware of this occurrance, and of the subsequent failure of the emergency information system.
When this siren first sounded, we thought it was an odd time for a test, but we were not too concerned.
After 5 minutes passed, all of my family and pur neighborhood was up and wondering if TMI was having a major problem.
We got out nur local phone book, which lists the emergency. procedures to follow in case of an alert.
This specifically says that if there is a continuous siren for 3-5 minutes, we should turn to one of the listed radio or television stations for emergency information.
We tuned into both a listed radio station and television stations but never once was there any mention of a problem at THI.
During this entire time there was t.a i:> formation given at all about the siren and we,ontinued to sound.
He called 911 to try to get information, that cre told that they had no idea why the siren was activated...
they only knew that the siren was not activated form their County Control Office.
For the next 50 minutes we had calls from many of our neighbors, who like ourselves could not get any information.
Some of the neighbors began to pack up and leave the area.
Even after the siren stopped, we had no idea if there was a problem.
By way of this letter, I am formally asking you to open an inves-tigation of the circumstances that caused the siren to sound, and the subsequent failure of the information network to work.
Unless you were involved, you cannot realize the anxiety and con-cern for the health of your family while the siren was sounding, j
nor car. you share my anger at not being able to find out what was happening.
Those 50 minutes seemed like hours to me, my family, and our neighbors.
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In a nuclear emergency, time is of the essence for an evacuation.
By not knowing if there was a problem, we wasted valuable time that could have been used in evacuating the area.
What do we do in the future when the siren sounds?
Are we to assume that it is only a malfunction?
The bottom line is that if the TMI warning and information systems do not work together, then there is no warning system for TMI.
By a copy of this letter, I am also informing my two US Senators, my Congressman, and the Governor of Pennsylvania of the events of March 17.
I know that they share my concern about the welfare and safety of the citizens of Pennsylvania in the event of a real nuclear emergency.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 717-764-5344.
- IY y Ji ames R. Sutton 100 Wetherburn Drive York, PA 17404 March 23, 1989 cc:
Senator John Heinz 4327 Dirksen North Senate Office Building.
Washington, DC 20510 Senator Arlan Spector S H 303 Washington, DC 20510 The Monorable William Goodling 2363 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Governor Robert Casey 225 Main Capitol Building Harrisburg, PA 17120
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