The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a meeting with Entergy Friday, the owners of the Indian Point Power Plant, to address concerns about the plant?s emergency notification system.

Many of the 156-sirens in the 10-mile radius surrounding the plant have failed in past tests. Entergy's vice president told the NRC they have replaced most of the sirens with a new design and expect to have the new system on line by the federally imposed deadline of January 31, 2007.

Most of the meeting covered technical issues about how the new system will work. A large component of Entergy's new system will be a reverse 911 system called "Code Red." So far though, Westchester is the only county not taking Entergy up on the offer to use "Code Red." State Assemblywoman Sandy Galef (D-Ossining) says that may be a mistake. She says there needs to be many systems in place to insure the proper notification in case of an emergency.

As for the earlier erroneous e-mail alert sent out by the state, the NRC says that is unrelated with the notification system Entergy is currently working on. NRC officials say Entergy appears to be making good progress in fixing the siren problems.

Related Information Indian Point e-mail gaffe sparks call for notification change