Genuine Three Mile Island Warning Siren - ACA Penetrator 10

This is a video of an actual siren to warn residents around the famous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant of an impending problem or disaster. Three Mile Island has the distinction of being the only nuclear power plant in the United States to have experienced a meltdown.

This particular siren is an ACA Penetrator 10, an older siren that is out of production and replaced by the ASC Tempest series. This York county siren is in Lewisberry on Big Spring Road. In the video, I incorrectly say it's on Marsh Run Road, which is where the P-10 I recorded two years ago is. The original siren system was installed in the early 1980s, and consisted of ACA P-10s and Cyclones. Today, the updated siren system is including Federal Signal 2001s to replace defective sirens or fill in gaps. The P-10 is the smallest siren in the Penetrator line, the largest being the famous P-50.

I apologize for the jittery shakes and wind noise, however, I had to jump through hoops to get a camera that can record video and sound, so I did the best I could with what I had. Standing in front of this P-10 while it was alive was like being on the front seat of a rollercoaster. Although you can't hear it in the video, at one point, I said "I can actually feel the sidewalk vibrating!"

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• TMI
• Three
• Mile
• Island
• ACA
• ASC
• Penetrator
• Cyclone
• Siren

[blackmaxima]

The pattern seems to be this: Every third Thursday in June, they run the annual 3-minute test of all the sirens for TMI. It's usually announced on the news a day or two beforehand.

Every other month, the first thursday of each month at 8:00 AM, a very quick test is done where the siren will only hum for a second or two. It's extremely easy to miss and not worth trying to catch.

The replacement sirens so far have been Federal Signal 2001s with one exception, some sort of ACA siren.

[MisterTwister55]

I am willing to bet that you hear the cyclone on TMI in the beginning of this video. I just looked up this location and found the siren using "birdseye". it is about 1.5 to 2.5 miles away from TMI and that would be the closest dauphin county siren.

[blackmaxima]

The area near me has a few Cyclones, one on Pleasant View Rd near my high school, one off Spanglers Mill Rd, and one in downtown New Cumberland near where I live. Guess it could be any one of them.

[TheDeathMonkeighs]

Skip to 2:10 if you dont wanna wait.

[CrudeDude]

Chilling. Shades of the Cold War......

[xXNIGHTCRAWLER233Xx]

The sound it makes when it starts up is like a car kind of

[supersonicbros23]

so that little barrel on a stick was the thing to tell people about a nuclear disast- HOLY SHIT!

[jeydonwaleshot15]

thats loud O.O

[BookWormGal21]

@blackmaxima They had that today, my mom said that they set the test alarm near her work today

[maensilverrmonsters]

that must have been scary o. o

[tayl0rd]

2:10

[The007x2]

Awful noise...

[stauffer301]

Thanks for the video to bad you were not able to cut it to the good parts thanks for the video!

[stauffer301]

@Typhoon10UK

they run sheduled testing to see if the siren works to inform the residents of middletown pa when or if a possbile hazord at the power plant. they do monthly testing now it is required they run these tests . The siren is only used when a emergency happends.Just like the emgerency board cast the siren is run so the siren is tested if their is a problem with the testing some one from the power plant comes out to inspect it and repair it.It is to inform the residents of the area.