I just read this article. Here's another reason, besides possible IRS problems this spring, to believe that the public will be quite aware of Y2K by July. The link and then the quote...

http://www.newsbytes.com/PubNews/124358.html

However, an NEI statement said the "majority of America's 103 nuclear power plants" still have not finished the assessment phase to determine which of their computer systems will be affected by the Year 2000 problem.

Specifically, NEI said most of the plants have nearly completed the detailed assessments needed to pinpoint computer systems that might be affected by Y2K issues.

"Plants that have not completed this work have been asked to increase their efforts so that the industry can report on the Y2K status of all plants to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the agency's July 1, 1999 deadline, the NEI statement said.

NERC said the nuclear industry has found that only 10 percent of the plant safety and operating systems that have been analyzed so far need to be "remediated." In addition, NERC said that nuclear plants that have started working on Year 2000 compliance have fixed more than 30 percent of the necessary replacements.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 13, 1999

Answers

Typo in the link. Here it is again:

http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/124358.html

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 13, 1999.

Thanks Kevin,

Isnt the July 1, 1999 deadline, the time when non-compliant, nuclear plant shut down decisions need to be made? Is power rationing coming up soon, in our near future?

Why do I not have warm fuzzy feelings about the power issues in this country?

Diane *Sigh*

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 13, 1999.

Hmmmmm. "nearly finished assessing ....."

Wish that were "nearly finished testing....."

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 13, 1999.

They are not going to shut the nukes down in July. The Eastern grids could never withstand such a degradation at peak demand season. I live fairly near the Limerick nuclear plant outside Philadelphia.I found the recent NRC audit very ionteresting because it gave a little insight into the embedded systems problem.

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The NRC audit of PECO Energy's Limerick Nuclear plant is now online at:PECO

Reading through the report, my overall sense is that they haven't actually done much beyond 'assessment'. The following quote I found rather interesting:

PECO Energy Distribution (PED) briefed the audit team on its Embedded Technology (ET)Project, which is the Y2K readiness project for PECO' s transmission and distribution systems. PED stated that the ET project began on June 1, 1998, with support from PECON's Y2K team members. PECON's support includes training, planning, and assisting in performing some of the Y2K readiness activities. PED's ET team consists of one coordinator, one engineer, an analyst, two senior field technicians, and one vendor field technician. The team surveyed 570 substations and identified 3000 embedded components. These components consist of 150 different types of equipment. An initial assessment of these 150 types of embedded components identified 75 different types needing further Y2K susceptibility testing.

Amazing amount of work for six people over 6 months! If they actually visited these substations, they saw 3 per day/ 7 days a week. 3000 embedded components broken down to 150 "types" of which half need further workup. This reads like a paper exercise and not an actual 'lets go look at the equipment' event. If the numbers are right, they have to look (and test) about 1500 embedded components. Hmm, that works out to 4 or 5 per day EVERY day until rollover. This presumes that they are 100% accurate on excluding the other 1500 components. It also presumes they found all of the embedded systems. PECO seems to rely a lot on vendor assurances in other parts of the report. Can't say it helps my peace of mind!

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), January 13, 1999.

"The team surveyed 570 substations and identified 3000 embedded components."

RD, to do that many stations in 6 months, they had to do the "survey" from blueprints/paperwork of the systems. The audit does say survey, not "visited".

That would mean then that they determined from the paperwork that out of the total, 75 IS systems needed testing to assess if indeed they have a y2k problem. (That's how I understand it.)

I hope the paperwork is acurate!

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 13, 1999.