This just in.......

BC-Y2K-NUCLEAR-USA NRC says 28 U.S. nuclear reactors still need Y2K fix By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday that 28 nuclear power reactors need to upgrade their computers to avoid possible Y2K computer problems, though none of the work still to be done involves computer safety systems. The commission said 75 of the nation's 103 operating nuclear power reactors were completely Y2K-compliant and it believed there would not be any problems with the remaining facilities becoming Y2K compliant before year end. "At this time, the NRC believes that all licensees will be able to operate their plants safely during the Y2K transition," the agency said. Electrical utilities that own nuclear power plants have retooled their systems to avoid any year 2000 problems in older computer systems that use only two digits to represent the year. Experts fear that computers worldwide could shutdown January 1, 2000, if they misread the year as 1900 instead of 2000. Most of the remaining reactors will be completely Y2K ready by the end of this month or in October, the agency said. However, the computers at two reactors will not be fully upgraded until the final weeks of the year, leaving a small window to address any unexpected problems. The plants cutting it close to the deadline are the Commanche Peak Unit 1 rector in Somervell County, Texas, which will not be ready until November 30, and the Farley Unit 2 plant near Dothan, Alabama, that will be upgraded by December 12. The NRC said after checking the records at the Cooper Nuclear plant in Nebraska, it determined the reactor was not Y2K ready, even though the plant's operators said its computers had been upgraded July 1. In addition, Cooper told the NRC that during an audit it discovered three pieces of the plant's equipment were improperly evaluated by the reactor's contractor. None of the equipment was related to safely shutting down the plant, and the reactor's operator has told the NRC the problems have been fixed. The agency said it is checking to see if the problem is unique to Cooper, but so far has has no indication it extends to other plants.

-- Researcher (tao8@earthlink.com), September 07, 1999

Answers

December 12 does seem to be cutting it a little close, doncha think?

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 07, 1999.

The nuclear plant will be ready be Dec 12 leaving 19 days for full testing. (Not counting holidays) Yep, feelin good about that.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), September 07, 1999.

Great, I live 25 miles from Farley Units 1 & 2.

-- Rosearbor (Rosearbor@hotmail.com), September 07, 1999.

http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/gmo/nrarcv/99-191.htm

hotlink

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), September 07, 1999.

Rosearbor: We live 7 miles from Commanche Peak and ,YES, Dog Gone, December is cutting it very close! My nuclear engineer friends tell me No Problem. Has anyone else had trouble sleeping lately?

-- Neil G.Lewis (pnglewis1@yahoo.com), September 07, 1999.

Lets put this in perspective. Major nuke hardware/software upgrades are often done during outages. For example, Plant Monitoring Computer is a major upgrade- and there is a potential for major bugs in a "first time" upgrade of a unit. Y2k bugs are typcially minor, and a lot more serious bugs can be found that aren't even date related.

Having said that, a number of Nuke plants HAVE upgraded their plant monitoring system in recent years (I have been involved with two), and problems are often found, unfortunately often after a restart.

The risks are no greater for these plants than have been experienced in years past. Why do you guys insist on assuming that Y2K DATE BUGS are the "worst" bugs? Industry findings indicate quite the opposite! If a major software upgrade is performed BECAUSE of Y2K, you can bet the farm that the worst bugs found won't be date related.

Now the good and unreported news - look at www.nei.org for the latest status for each nuke plant - you will see than many of the "major" upgrades have already been performed on another unit at the same plant. For these upgrades, the risks are low, since the bugs have already been dealt with.

Get outside the Y2K box. Think. Common sense works for Y2K bugs too.

Regards,

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), September 07, 1999.