But the human error behind Florida's false alarm is more easily dealt with. The National Weather Service said last week that as a result of the Tallahassee incident, it's adding a confirmation process to its alerting software nationwide that should make issuing a serious alert at least as difficult as deleting a folder from a Windows desktop.

"Now when the operator calls up on their computer screen what particular three-letter ID they'd like to send, another window will pop up and say, 'Do you really want to issue this radiological hazard warning?'" said Zaleski.