Random sirens alarm Harris nuclear plant neighbors

NEW HILL, NC (WTVD) -- Annual maintenance. That's Duke Energy's explanation for warning sirens around the Harris Nuclear Power plant going off at seemingly random times over the past week.

But no one seemed to know about it.

The first reports started popping up on social media last week.

Local police started getting calls. So did the Town of Apex. But no one could explain why the sirens were going on and off.

"I had a couple of people, a couple of drivers, ask me what's going on," said Aundrea Conley, a road construction worker stationed near one of the sirens.

Conley said he heard one siren start wailing last week for about 10 minutes.

"You can put a lot of people in panic if that siren goes off and there's not really nothing going on at the nuclear plant," Conley said. "People can go a little bananas when they don't know what it's meant for."

"It sounds like it's in your back yard," said Laura Taylor. "It's really loud."

Taylor lives in Apex, one of the surrounding towns and communities that has nuclear warning sirens scattered about. She says she heard the siren go off three times last week.

"It is concerning because you wonder what's going on," said Taylor. "Is it just some kind of malfunction or should we be more concerned?"

As it turns out, it was neither.

A spokesperson for the Harris Nuclear Power facility says they started doing maintenance on the 83 sirens around the plant last Tuesday.

There is no schedule for the work. It's slated to last another couple weeks.

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