VY phone alert gets test today

Staff Report

Tuesday, April 18

BRATTLEBORO -- Residents within the Vermont Yankee evacaution zone may receive a phone call today, as part of a test of a new emergency notification system.

The system, which works as a sort of reverse 911 calling system, may be put into place after a successful testing period. It could deliver a recorded message to up to 60,000 households per hour.

It will be tested today at noon in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Halifax, Guilford, Vernon and in Hinsdale, Chesterfield, Winchester and Richmond, N.H.

The system would augment the current radiological emergency notification system that uses a combination of sirens and tone alert radios that would direct residents to tune to an emergency alert radio station for a message from state emergency management agencies.

Rob Williams, a spokesman for Vermont Yankee, could not comment Monday on the cost of implementing this new notification system. He said Entergy Nuclear, the plant's Mississippi-based owners, decided to adopt the new system to "take advantage of improved technology."

"We do that in all aspects of operations and activity," Williams said.

Once the system tests successfully, residents and businesses will be offered the opportunity to add their own phone numbers and/or cell phone numbers directly to the system's telephone number database.

The system is called CodeRED and was developed by Emergency Communications Network, a Florida based company.