Siren sounds Wednesday scheduled test

The sirens that are to sound on Wednesday morning are another in a regularly scheduled test of those emergency warning devices within a 10-mile radius of the Oconee Nuclear Station. According to a Duke spokeswoman, because of the pandemic it is important to point out that the wailing of those sirens—at 11:50 Wednesday morning—pertain to the scheduled practice run of the system in place to warn in the event there were an emergency situation involving the plant. The test plans for Wednesday differ slightly from the information in the 2019-20 booklets that the utility sent to residents within the 10-mile zone. Because of siren activation upgrades this year, the sirens will not sound for 5 to 30 seconds. Because this is a scheduled test, local broadcast stations, such as 101.7/WGOG, will not interrupt regular programming to broadcast Emergency Alert System messages. If there were ever a real emergency at the plant requiring the sirens to be sounded, local radio and TV stations would broadcast information and instructions.