Another warning siren accidentally goes off in Brunswick County

Another warning siren accidentally goes off in Brunswick County
Published: May. 21, 2018 at 2:24 PM EDT|Updated: May. 22, 2018 at 5:05 PM EDT
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BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WECT) - For the second time in four days, an emergency nuclear siren in Brunswick County malfunctioned and began going off.

According to Brunswick County officials, a siren in the area of Boiling Spring Lakes began sounding Monday morning due to a malfunction.

Despite the siren sound, the Brunswick Nuclear Plant is operating safely, officials say.

According to Karen Williams, senior communications consultant with Duke Energy, the malfunctioning siren has been fixed and is back in service.

On Tuesday, Williams explained what Duke Energy thinks happened.

"The Boiling Springs Lake siren malfunction appears related to a computer component similar to the one on the Caswell Beach siren (last Thursday)," Williams wrote in an email. "That component is not essential for operation of the sirens, so has been disabled on all of our sirens. We are confident this will prevent further invalid alarms."

The Brunswick Nuclear Plant has a network of 38 sirens located within 10 miles of the plant. Only one siren near Boiling Spring Lakes falsely activated Monday morning.

Duke Energy technicians have been busy examining all 38 sirens, which is standard protocol when a siren malfunctions, according to Williams.

"Our goal is to make sure the sirens are always functioning properly," said Williams. "With the information that we have now about the malfunction this morning, we are investigating the other sirens to make sure that we don't have more malfunctions."

Some residents we spoke with describe hearing the alarm go off in Boiling Spring Lakes just after 8 a.m., and others said they only heard about it through a smartphone alert, friends, or the news.

"My wife and I were en route to our home here in Boiling Spring Lakes," said Robert Williamson, who has lived in town since 2001.

"I had the radio going and I had thought I heard the siren. Turned the radio down and I heard the end of the siren," said Williamson.

"It's like a long sounding horn, and it comes across in phases," said Williamson. "It's sort of spooky, you know. To find out, is this the real thing? Or is it an alarm? We're talking about radiation, you know nuclear radiation."

Another resident, who didn't want to be named, said it woke him up and startled him.

Ann Hollingsworth, who has lived in Boiling Spring Lakes since 1999, said she didn't hear the siren when it went off.

"I was watching television waiting on my significant other to get home to have breakfast," said Hollingsworth. "And I didn't hear the alarm, but I did get a text from my friend who lives down on South Shore. And she asked me if I heard the alarm and I said 'no.'"

Technicians discovered a "computer component" failure caused the Caswell Beach false alarm. The faulty part was replaced and the siren put back into service the same day, according to Williams.

The sirens are maintained and operated with cooperation with the county and state. In a real emergency, the state or county gathers information and decides whether to activate the sirens.

"We're constantly working to maintain those sirens," said Williams.

The sirens are tested quarterly throughout the year.

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