The transition will take place on February 1. Implementation has been approved by FEMA

Prior to the transition date, both the sirens and the wireless emergency alert system are available to warn you in the event of an emergency. Upon the February 1^st transition date, the siren system will be de-energized and no longer available to be activated. The wireless emergency alert system becomes the means by which alerts will be issued in the event of an emergency. Sirens will be physically removed across the Emergency Planning Zone over time. 

Dominion Energy, in partnership with Virginia Department of Emergency Management, is making this change to use current technology to better protect the health and safety of the public. This change will allow us to provide information on a real-time basis on what actions to take in the event of an emergency.

FEMA implemented wireless emergency alerts in 2012. Today, there are more than 1,500 federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial alerting authorities that use this system to send critical public alerts and warnings in their jurisdictions. It has been used nearly 56,000 times to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations.

• Unlike the alert sirens which just make a noise, wireless emergency alerts sent to your cell phone provide information on what to do and what actions to take in an emergency. This means you will know exactly what to do if an emergency happens at the North Anna or Surry Nuclear Stations.
• Wireless emergency alerts allow for follow up messages and updates to be sent out regarding an emergency. This means you will get updates and further guidance throughout an emergency.
• Sirens are not designed to always be heard indoors, whereas wireless emergency alerts can reach you inside your home, at work, in the car, or wherever you are near a cell phone.
• The alert sirens are only sounded for a total of approximately fifteen minutes. The wireless emergency alerts allow a much longer window of time for you to receive the alert. This means anyone traveling within a ten‐mile radius of North Anna or Surry Nuclear Stations during the alerting window will receive the alert message on their cell phone, where they would likely not have heard the sirens going off.
• The wireless emergency alert system uses GPS targeting, meaning that the wireless emergency alert will go out to anyone and everyone who is within a ten‐mile radius of the North Anna and Surry Nuclear Stations, whether they live, work, or are vacationing in the area.

Devices capable of receiving Wireless Emergency Alerts are marked on the retail callout card and at the manufacturer equipment descriptions online with the Wireless Emergency Alert Capable logo:

In addition to WEA, the EAS system will also send the same messages to radio and television broadcasters. Residential and business phones of those located within a 10-mile radius of North Anna and Surry Power Stations will also be called.

The quarterly early warning systems test is only a test of the siren system surrounding North Anna and Surry Power Stations and does not include a test of the WEA system.

https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/integrated-public-alert-warning-system

https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/integrated-public-alert-warning-system/public/emergency-alert-system

https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/integrated-public-alert-warning-system/public/wireless-emergency-alerts