San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) former mystery/custom engineered siren FOUND!!!!

[Duderocks5539]

The only thing I wish he had were the horns ,but I can make them since he has design drawings of them.

[Federal 500]

Saw the video of it running...
I know you were in a confined space, and it would’ve cheesed of the people around you , so I think it could be MUCH louder.

[JCRGH]

Once you guys finish building the horns and all of that, how are you going to test it? Also very nice find!

[SirenMadness]

Darn, I never thought the day would come where a collector would get his hands on one of these bad boys. I thought they all bit the dust. Congrats! I'm impressed with those output figures considering the rather modest power demand; like everyone else at the time I was always under the impression that they consumed a monumental deal of energy to run.

[Duderocks5539]

Darn, I never thought the day would come where a collector would get his hands on one of these bad boys. I thought they all bit the dust. Congrats! I'm impressed with those output figures considering the rather modest power demand; like everyone else at the time I was always under the impression that they consumed a monumental deal of energy to run.

Thanks ,since the STL-10s went to curry county , I believe the rest of the Model 120s either 1. Went to a different state .2 They could be in storage at a Edison warehouse. I'm in contact with the director of emergency planning ,And she told that the old siren weren't scrapped. So if I find them I'll let all you guys know.

[Taterworks]

So here's some more information on the blower.

Paxton Products (Santa Monica, CA) is a manufacturer of centrifugal superchargers and industrial blowers based upon the same. Their blowers are commonly used in place of roots-type blowers for pneumatic conveying and process air where lower pressures but much higher flows are needed.

I came across a package of a Paxton blower and a 5 HP motor that is rated to supply up to 275 CFM at 57 inches water column (~2 PSI); by comparison, a Thunderbolt blower (Roots) supplies air at up to 6 PSI. The light weight of the Paxton blower package would enable a lighter pole weight than a roots blower, enabling the blower to be closely coupled to the siren. The blower spins very quickly, which is why the special purpose poly-V belts were supplied; the blower shaft speed is about 15,000 RPM, increased from an input shaft speed of 3450-3495 RPM. A conventional V belt drive would not last long at those speeds; the flat belt is a requirement, being more cost effective than a gearbox.

The above might not be 100% accurate; your blower looks a little different. The diameter of the scroll looks larger. Also, I think the blower with the POW 120 siren is larger than the one I found. Just be sure to use the correct belts and pulleys with your blower and don't substitute V-belt components.

[Duderocks5539]

Here are some pictures of a Model 120 and 3 STL-10s from a 2005 amtrak DVD.
Credit to The Owl Fan and Siratone for finding these pictures.


Pictures in order

1. Model 120 site #SJ12 by the pacific sales store. (Now a Whelen 2810)
2. STL-10 site #DP01. (Now a Whelen 2806)
3. STL-10 site #SC05. (Now a Whelen 2806)
4. STL-10 site #SC07. (Now a Whelen 2806)

[Model L]

nice! if the other 120 sirens are indeed in storage that would be a huge find!

[Duderocks5539]

nice! if the other 120 sirens are indeed in storage that would be a huge find!

Yeah ,I'm going to call the director of emergency planning one of these days and ask If she knows where they went ,but mostly likely the siren technicians know since they are the ones that most like put the Whelens up and took the 120s down.

[Duderocks5539]

Ok ,since I know the emergency director at SONGS she is currently talking to one of the employees that did the Whelen upgrade in 2006 and ask where they put them.
But here is the story she sent me about upgrading to the Whelens ,this upgrade has been planned 2 years before the upgrade actually happened. The Model 120s are also know as SCE 120s and the FS110s are the STL-10s. It says that the Model 120s and STL-10s were installed in September of 1982.




Regulatory Evaluation for the siren upgrade project 6/10/2004


1.0. Background and Scope -

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has requested and received approval from FEMA (Ref. 6.7) to implement a change to the Offsite Community Alert Siren System. The change is to substitute the existing SCE120 and FS110 sirens with Whelen Engineering Model 2800 series sirens, which are of equivalent sound ratings. The new sirens will be placed in the same locations as the sirens that they are replacing with the exception of a few that may be moved to a different but close by location. In these instances, the movement will not reduce the acoustic coverage. These moves were requested by the jurisdiction and an evaluation determined that the acoustic coverage would not be reduced.

Additionally, a new system controller will be installed which will maintain an equivalent capability to initiate system operation and testing. Since the controller will not change testing activities or the methods for polling a siren and is not described in regulations or the Emergency Plan as having to meet any specific standard, evaluation of the new controller is not required and is not included in this 10CFR50.54(q) evaluation, (Note: the FEMA approved vendor substantiated this conclusion). Other minor changes will be made that include the addition of a board display that will provide siren operability results to personnel in the EOF and minor movement of ENS Yellow phones may occur to locate them in the siren cabinets. The purpose for moving the phone is to improve human factoring. The operability of the equipment will in no way be affected. For both of these minor changes there will be no reduction in effectiveness and further evaluation is not required.

The reason for this change is as follows:
The original sirens were installed by SCE and certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 1982. There are several factors that justify the replacement of the existing sirens including obsolescence, environmental, and regulatory. The system is aging and by the year 2004 will be 22 years old. The predicted useful life of the siren system is about 20 years.

The remote monitoring components of the system began operation in 1994. The certification of full operability occurred in 1996. At the time of their replacement the remote telemetry modules will have exceeded their expected 8-year life cycle.

The following support this change:

· The physical condition of the sirens is showing wear. Proximity to the ocean is causing rusting and some components are showing signs of degradation. The SCE-built sirens are showing indications of coating and motor degradation and have failed throughout the years on a routine basis.
· There are no SCE-built 120 dB spares available.
· The Federal Signal sirens consist of 25 single-phase sirens and 3 three-phase sirens. The single-phase sirens are no longer available from the manufacturer and there are no spares available.
· The remote monitoring system control software is DOS based. The software manufacture no longer supports the software.
· The dedicated computers that run the monitoring system, display status and log history will also have reached the end of their expected useful life. In addition, the monitoring system is not compatible with the control system for the new Whelen 2800 series sirens.
· Expected reliability for the system, as defined in the NRC Performance Indicator program, is 94%. Considering the issues noted above, the percent reliability is expected to decrease by 2004, thus justifying this replacement project to continue to conform to NRC regulations for alert and notification systems.

A rapid replacement program will decrease the probability of maintenance and testing errors by having all one type of sirens versus three different types to manage.