Senator Requests NRC Intervention At Indian Point

State Senator Thomas Morahan has sent a letter to the commissioners of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission demanding that the agency investigate "the reliability and effectiveness of primary and back-up siren systems at Entergy's Indian Point facility.

The Senator, who serves on the State Senate committee which deals with Homeland Security, indicated to the commissioners that he was "appalled that Entergy'sIndian Point siren system has consistently been unreliable." He reminded the commissioners that as a result of the accident at Three Mile Island Unit (TMI-2) nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania in 1979, the NRC had been mandated to tighten its regulatory oversight.

"The NRC is required to ensure drills and response plans are tested and reliable;that state and local agencies participate in drills with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the NRC," noted the Senator.

Inadequate responsiveness by FEMA to state and local agencies during natural disasters over the past few weeks, as well as continued failure of NRC monitored public notification systems, was the catalyst to the Senator demanding that the NRC investigate the public notification system at Indian Point, as well as mandating that Entergy install redundant and fail-safe primary and back-up public notification systems, including sirens.

"Twenty-six years ago, the NRC was given a mandate to ensure that licensees of a nuclear facility, like the one at Indian Point, developed state-of-the-art public notification systems to alert and protect nearby communities. To date, neither the NRC or FEMA have met this responsibility, and officials in government must, atall costs, insist that they do this---to prevent any semblance ofa'Three Mile Island scenario,' saidthe Senator.