WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) – The emergency sirens that are designed to alert
nearby residents of an emergency at the Indian Point nuclear power plants
were out of service for more than six hours Wednesday morning because of a
computer malfunction, officials said.

The sirens, which have a history of operating problems and are due to be
replaced by next year, were out from 12:06 a.m. to 6:35 a.m., said Jim
Steets, spokesman for Indian Point owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast.

He said the malfunction was unrelated to heat and power problems currently
plaguing the area. He said a computer program that continuously monitors
the sirens malfunctioned, making it impossible to activate them.

Had an emergency occurred at Indian Point during the outage, a backup plan
involving trucks with loudspeakers would have been implemented.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said NRC
inspectors would monitor Entergy’s investigation of what caused Wednesday’s problem.

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