Rusty Cada, laborer for West Shore Services, positions a new emergency siren for removal from a truck Thursday. The new siren will sit atop a 60-foot pole near the 5500 block of Hixson Pike. The sirens are linked to Sequoyah Nuclear Plant.
TO LEARN MOREDownload the 2013 Sequoyah calendar from this story online or from TVA’s website at http://www.tva.gov/power/nuclear/pdf/2013_SQN_Calendar.pdfSource: Tennessee Valley Authority
TVA is bringing the nuclear disaster warning sirens for Sequoyah Nuclear Plant into the 21st century.
The federal utility is replacing 108 sirens on wooden poles that would only work when the electric power was on. The rotating state-of-the art replacement sirens — plus four more new ones — have battery back-up power and are on stronger steel poles.
“The old sirens have been in place for 30 years now,” said Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Ray Golden. “And if we do have a storm that comes through and takes out power, the new sirens would still be able to operate in the unlikely event that we had some kind of significant emergency at the plant and had to notify the public.
The replacements are part of a $7 million program to update the sirens surrounding all three of TVA’s nuclear plants — Sequoyah, Browns Ferry in North Alabama and Watts Bar near Dayton, Tenn.