The Siren Board

I just found out that VC Summer near Newberry, SC will be decommissioning their nuclear sirens in 2021 because they are replacing them with WEAs (Wireless Emergency Alerts). Once was I told by the Newberry EMA back March 2020. I told EMA that it's wrong to decommission nuclear sirens. The EMA then said complain that to VC Summer.

https://www.dominionenergy.com/projects ... ition-faqs

Ouch. Definitely not the decision I'd be making.

Not smart. Just not smart. Sirens may be an old method, but they're definitely more reliable then those emergency alerts which will most likely only reach people with cellphones. Not everyone has a cellphone.

Even then just because you have a cellphone doesn't mean you're on it 24/7. Think of all the truck drivers,customer service reps, doctors or other jobs where you aren't able to get to your phone at all time. I'm a welder so I always have that helmet on.

Not everyone has a cellphone! and even if they do, they may not have coverage.

I wonder why they are doing this in the first place.

jiachai14 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 15, 2020 8:00 pm

Not smart, and not safe. Cell phones and smartphones are an inherently unreliable method of communication. They run off batteries, which tend to fail after a certain number of cycles and age. And you can't really avoid forgetting to charge your phone if you rarely use it like I do. Also, like others have mentioned, not every person may have reliable network coverage. Not even everybody I know has Wi-Fi, let alone internet.

Here's something that has bothered me for quite a while. The danger of "BUT SOMETIMES!"

Sirens have the benefit of hard-wired connection to mains power, and, if equipped, battery and solar panel backup operation. They are evidently more reliable than cell phones and they can strike a sense of fear and danger in most people, BUT SOMETIMES they fail to sound when a command is given.

That sometimes is only some of the time. The other 98% of the time that they work, they are useful, effective, and reliable!

Sure, some designs may require some maintenance and periodic testing, but they are much, much better than only resorting to Wireless Emergency Alerts.

Yeah, they should resort to both, and maybe even resort to the local EAS system too.

Everyone has to admit, this is a VERY terrible idea.
1. Not everyone has a cellphone
2. What if there is an error and the alert cannot get to phones?
3. This is a big risk of death or injury to citizens.

Wow. Just wow. I wouldn't want to live near V.C. Summer after those sirens are decommissioned. Does anyone have an idea where the sirens will go?

An addednum to my previous post, sirens are used to draw people to their phones. I get notifications from ebay, Twitter, weather, low battery etc. They all blend together. How will one more post stick out?

Not to mention that this is just 2 years after the California wildfires where Verizon cut phone service to EMS in the middle of a crisis situation.

I'd like to blame the bean-counters in the paint tasting department, but the whole idea of nuclear power wasn't well thought out, coming from someone in the line of fire of such plants as Davis besse and Zimmer.