It's time today to find out how schools in Wake County and statewide fared for the 2011-12 school year.
State ABC results will be released online here by 10 a.m. They come, as noted in today's article by Lynn Bonner, as part of the last year of the state's ABCs program.
Wake announced last week that preliminary results indicated districtwide gains. This includes passing rates rising to 82.1 percent in elementary and middle schools and 85.2 percent in high school.
A free program to test well water quality in Lee and Chatham counties is getting underway Thursday with two informational sessions in Sanford for interested property owners.
The purpose of the testing program is to collect data about local water quality in advance of potential "fracking" in the state for natural gas. Water quality tests can cost up to $2,000 per well and are out of range for most farmers and property owners.
Some fear that natural gas drilling contaminates drinking water with methane gas and chemicals, and having baseline data will help determine if those fears are founded should drilling be allowed in this state. Disputes over water contamination in other states have resulted in claims of mystery illnesses and animal deaths, as well as lawsuits, settlements, bottled water deliveries and some homeowners being relocated at the expense of the drilling company.
Residents and visitors within 10 miles of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant will be treated tomorrow to a full blast of the plant's emergency sirens.
Progress Energy will conduct an annual full-volume test of all 83 sirens between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The annual test will sound very much like a real emergency, except that the sirens will wail only 3 minutes at a time.
All U.S. nuclear plants are required to have emergency warning systems within a 10-mile emergency planning zone. Shearon Harris conducts four tests a year for about 5 seconds and one test for 3 minutes.
The sirens used by Raleigh-based Progress Energy, which operates the plant, sound like air raid warnings. At 100 feet, they generate 127 decibels, comparable to a human scream or a marching band.
In a periodic ritual familiar to residents who live near a nuclear power plant, Progress Energy will sound the emergency warning sirens for the Shearon Harris plant at full blast tomorrow morning.
The Raleigh-based power company will conduct a full-volume test for about 5 seconds between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The Shearon Harris nuclear plant has 83 warning sirens within 10 miles of the power plant.
The nuclear siren, which resembles an air-raid warning, is not likely to be mistaken for the afternoon bell at the local schoolhouse.
Progress is required to have a notification system in place in the event of an accident that results in a radioactive release. In past years, the sirens have failed the test, but since then the utility has replaced them at a cost of $2.5 million.
