Well done BBC, just been out. If you face North, Gemini is currently at "2 O'clock" just a bit north of a Planet, which I assume is Jupiter from the brightness. Only seen one satelite so far though, no rocks falling out of the sky.
Just saw the first one, red & yellow, came from directly overhead, nearly clipped the bottom of Gemini, travelling North East in the direction of Redcar. Duck Clueless
Nope. It activates automatically when any fault is detected on the plant. It can be anything, it could be as major as a leak (except it isn't otherwise the sirens would be going off) to something as minor as a sensor registering a tiny amount outside of set limits. Its a safety feature to ensure that Teesside stays beside the Tees, as opposed to going airborne and looking like the best meteor shower of a lifetime.
Noisy then? :D I remember working up there in the 90's. Forgotten what they said it cost - £1,000 a minute or £10,000 a day, or some other "large number" ... the thing had been going off for more than a fortnight and some people were seriously scratching their chins! Big plant - all part of the ICI site back then ...
That's the one. The figure I heard was £10,000 per hour. That's a lot of money, except that its owned by a Saudi company that publishes its annual financial figures in Billions rather than thousands or millions.