Jul 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dave Franzman The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa



The operators of Iowa's only nuclear power plant vowed Monday to get to the bottom of a recent warning siren problem.

One of 144 sirens in Linn and Benton Counties blared a bogus message Friday about problems at the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo.

The warning message at that failed siren in northeast Cedar Rapids was not triggered by operator accident, officials said, but rather the prerecorded message was activated on its own for unknown reasons.

 Residents in Linn and Benton Counties who live near the siren system assume the outdoor warning system is there only for tornado and weather alerts. But New Era Energy, the operator of the Duane Arnold Energy Center, owns the system as part of the requirements for a federal license to run a nuclear power plant. Each siren costs $20,000 to $27,000.

Dean Curtland, DAEC Plant Manager, said technicians have removed the electronics from the siren that activated accidentally. Power plant operators will ask the manufacturer for a full-scale test to see if it can pinpoint why the error happened.

'These types of sirens are used throughout the country, and we want to understand what was the failure mechanism,' Curtland said. 'A very formal failure analysis' will be done.

Curtland said operators on duty Friday night in the DAEC control room had no idea the siren was activated. Plant operators don't trigger the system; that's the job of the Linn County Emergency Management office.

Emergencies at the nuclear power plant are broken into four categories. An unusual event or first stage alert indicates a potential problem within the plant, but one that can be handled by plant personnel with no public action. The outdoor warning system is not triggered for such events. A site area emergency or general emergency will be declared only if there is a major problem with plant safety and security. Rules require notification of state and local authorities within 15 minutes and activation of the outdoor warning system.

But Curtland said well before any emergency reached that point, the plant would notify the media to get critical information to the public.

'Once we notify the state and county, the next thing we'd do is get the notifications to the media, because we want the public to understand what is going on with the power plant,' he said.

Plant operators said sirens contain prerecorded warnings that can be triggered with the siren.

No one at the plant can remember another failure involving a bogus radiological warning.

-- Comments: (319) 368-8611; dave.franzman@kcrg.com

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