What’s that sound? Emergency sirens are being tested at Hanford

Emergency sirens will be activated for a drill at the Hanford nuclear reservation Thursday.

The public may hear sirens between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. just north of Richland near the Columbia River and in the area of the Fast Flux Test Facility and the LIGO observatory.

Public address announcements stating “this is a drill message” will be made prior to and following the siren tone. In a real emergency, county officials would activate the Emergency Alert System to broadcast information to the public from local radio and television stations.

Periodic emergency drills and siren tests are conducted at Hanford, where plutonium was made through the Cold War for the nation’s nuclear weapons program. They are part of on ongoing program to test emergency equipment and train workers on emergency response procedures.

This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 9:48 AM with the headline "What’s that sound? Emergency sirens are being tested at Hanford."