Nuclear Alarms Ring in Central North Carolina
An article posted by Raleigh based Wral brings our attention to yet another nuclear false alarm that has rocked Amercian citizens. On Friday alarms blazed warning residents of Apex and Cary North Carolina of impending disaster.
The article states that "A spokesman for Duke Energy, which owns the plant in New Hill, N.C. in southern Wake County, said the energy company is investigating what prompted the alarm to sound shortly before 1 p.m. " and goes to say "This afternoon several sirens around the Harris Nuclear Plant malfunctioned, specifically near Apex and Cary," spokesman Brandon Thomas said in a written statement. "There is no impact to the public and no need for public actions."
Anyone living in central NC knows that Sharron Harris Nuclear plant is no stranger to controversy. As stated by NCWARN "Harris ranks last nationally in at least two leading fire safety categories. Industry-wide, fire is the leading risk factor for reactor meltdown – constituting up to 50% of total risk, calculated under the assumption that the plant is in compliance with federal regulations. NRC estimates that the “… typical nuclear power plants will have three or four significant fires over their operating lifetime.” NCWARN goes on to state "Progress Energy has remained in violation of 10 CFR Part 50 regulations since 1992, when NRC declared a widely used fire barrier called Thermo-Lag to be “inoperable” after its manufacturer was found to have falsified testing data. Harris had installed up to 10,000 square feet of Thermo-Lag, designed to protect vital safety equipment from fire. A second fire barrier, called Hymec, which wraps 6,000 linear feet of electrical cable at Harris – the most at any U.S. plant – is also inoperable."
After the most recent failure of warning systems in Hawaii, citizens are left questioning the integrity of those in charge of keeping society abreast of impending doom.