Nuclear Power Industry Works to Allay Y2K Fears

By Deena Beasley
Reuters
Tuesday, June 29, 1999; 12:54 p.m. EDT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/y2k/y2k.htm

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

LOS ANGELES  The nuclear power industry, aiming to allay public fears of power outages and radiation leaks, has stepped up efforts to make sure plants are not vulnerable to the year 2000 computer bug.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will release on Wednesday a report on exactly how ready each of the nation's 103 nuclear power reactors are for the millennium date change. Nuclear reactors account for about 20 percent of all U.S. power generation. The millennium problem arises because many older computers record dates using only the last two digits of the year. If left uncorrected, such systems could treat the year 2000 as the year 1900, generating errors or system crashes next Jan. 1.

Most U.S. nuclear plants were built in the 1960s and 70s -- before the onset of the present digitalized age, noted Ralph Beedle, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group.

"All of our plant shutdown systems are analog," said Robert Haverkamp, manager of the Y2K project at Southern California Edison Co.'s San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Clemente, Calif.

Nevertheless, Edison has, over the past 18 months, meticulously tracked down and remedied all plant systems determined to be vulnerable to the date change, he said.

"We will be reporting full readiness to the NRC on June 30," Haverkamp said.

But operations-related systems at about 10 of the 103 reactors are not expected to get a clean bill of health until later this year, Beedle said.

The trade group did not identify which plants are not yet up to snuff, but emphasized that all are set to undergo maintenance work after power demand has peaked for the summer.

"Two weeks ago, energy was selling for $1,300 a megawatt hour. If the plants were taken off line now, rates would go up and consumers would not be very happy," Beedle said.

Like most nuclear reactors, the two operating units at San Onofre are connected to the regional electricity grid, which brings in the necessary power for cooling the plant and preventing any threat of meltdown.

As part of everyday operations, critical systems at nuclear plants are designed with "fail safe" conditions, which automatically shut the plant down if they are not met.

"Even if our worst fears come true and the grid goes down at midnight on December 31 and we have a station blackout, the reactor shuts down safely and we can restart after the clock changes," Beedle said.

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), which oversees delivery of electricity in the United States and Canada, said in March the industry had completed more than 75 percent of the required testing and remediation of its systems and nearly all were expected to be up to speed by June 30.

Fewer than 3 percent of all components failed Y2K testing, with most errors occurring in systems, such as schedule logs, that would not cause the lights to go out, NERC said.

As a back up, the NRC requires every nuclear reactor to have on site at least two diesel-powered generators to provide emergency power in case of a failure in the grid connection.

If, for some random reason, those units were also to fail, nuclear operators have established backup contingencies. Edison, for example, has determined two transmission paths, one from San Diego and one from Hoover Dam in Arizona, that could quickly supply the plant with emergency power.

Officials said special attention has been paid to making sure that bureaucratic conditions for plant operations will be met at the time of the date change.

"Plants are shut down on a regular basis for administrative reasons, but we want to eliminate the possibility of having to take a unit off line for relatively unimportant reasons," Beedle said.

Some critics, however, have questioned the standard of readiness the nuclear power plant operators are being held to as well as their compliance with the standards.

"There are a number of workarounds that are being done in place of upgrades to a complete rollover from December 31 to January 1," said Paul Gunter, director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service's Reactor Watchdog Project.

He also complained that a lot of the compliance standards derived by both the industry and the NRC were determined for economic, rather than safety, reasons.

"A number of the plants already have problems with their design documentation," Gunter said. "Y2K is another straw on this camel's back."

The nuclear watchdog group has petitioned the NRC to conduct emergency preparedness drills, require additional backup power supplies at nuclear plants and shut down any plants that cannot prove themselves free of the Y2K bug.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999

Answers

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) web-site:

http://www.nrc.gov

The Year 2000 Issue

http:// www.nrc.gov/NRC/NEWS/year2000.html

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999.

Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) - information and networking center for citizens and environmental activists concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues.

http://www.nirs.org/

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999.

Interesting that this story that there is going to be a story that WILL allay our fears has been running for 2 days now. See: posting on Electric forum

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 29, 1999.

gee ms Squire, you seem rattled today. Remember the posting rulz about 'checking the new answers screen' before you post?

Mild Mannered Reporter already posted this one. Of course he did not try to "spin" it at all.

-- IRONy MAN (marvel@comic.book), June 29, 1999.

Well, so he did. Yesterday's date. This appeared in the Washington Post... today.

Yes, I'm a tad rattled. They just announced that Silicon Valley is in a "Stage One" Alert for electricity use.

Now I gotta figure out what THAT means... or shut down the 'puter for awhile.

;-D

Latte time.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999.

PGE Non-Firm Service Program: Stages of Notification

http://www.pge.com/ nonfirm/stages.html

STAGE 1 EMERGENCY

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has issued a STAGE 1 EMERGENCY which indicates that the real-time operating reserves are forecasted to be less than the CAISO Minimum Operating Reserves. There is a potential for a Non-Firm Operation. All Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers are requested to VOLUNTARILY curtail nonessential electric loads.

See also...

PG&E Safety & Emergency Information

http:// www.pge.com/customer_services/emergency/

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 29, 1999.

Here's a wild thought, how bout if they actually work on fixing and testing instead of spinning and allaying?

-- Jim Smith (cyberax@ix.netcom.com), June 29, 1999.

Re fixing vs. spinning and allaying. Probably that ol' bottom line at work as usual. Since REAL compliance is too expensive (in dollars and time) they get more bang for their buck with feigned compliance. Kind of the "Equal"tm of Truth. Sweet at first bite, but there's no reality there, and it leaves a bad taste if you spend to much time tasting it.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 29, 1999.

puleeze missy squires, pleeze ,don,t send ole al-d' to the briar patch,please mam, oh,oh ,don,t tell the massa,you know how massa barry be.----i sorry i said, you is mean massa, iknow ,i know, this fo-um is fo da w--right folk,s only. i be sorry missy diane.

-- al-d. (CATT@ZIANET.COM), June 29, 1999.

Al-D, My boss wanted me to tell you he is going to get his money from you.

-- Big Quido (BigQuido@mafia.com), June 30, 1999.