I receive the following this morning from the NRC's Year-2000 "discussion" list. Noone ever seems to discuss anything there, so I thought I would repost it here.

Pay particular attention to item's #3, 5 & 9

This is an OLDER nuclear plant with mostly analog controls, yet it does not anticipate being ready by July 1 1999. But the NRC auditors don't think that's a problem.

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The Executive Summary of NRC's Audit Report on Davis Besse's Year 2000 Program is provided below. An HTML version of the entire document is now posted on NRC's Web site. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AUDIT REPORT ON YEAR 2000 PROGRAM DAVIS-BESSE NUCLEAR POWER STATION December 1, 1998

Executive Summary

>From October 27 through October 29, 1998, the NRC staff conducted an audit of the Year 2000 (Y2K) program at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. The purpose of the audit was to (1) assess the effectiveness of the the licensee's programs for achieving Y2K readiness, including continued safe operation of the plant as well as compliance with applicable NRC regulations and license conditions with respect to the potential Y2K problems, (2) evaluate Y2K program implementation to assure that the licensee's schedule is in accordance with NRC Generic Letter (GL) 98-01 guidelines for achieving Y2K readiness by July 1999, and (3) assess the licensee's contingency plans for addressing risks associated with potential events resulting from Y2K problems. The audit team reviewed selected licensee documentation regarding the Davis-Besse Year 2000 Project Plan (Davis-Besse Y2K readiness program) and conducted interviews with the cognizant licensee personnel. The results of this audit and subsequent audits at other selected plants will be used by the staff to determine the need for additional action, if any, on Y2K readiness for nuclear power plants.

Based on the audit team's assessment and evaluation of the Davis-Besse Y2K readiness program, the following findings were made:

1.The Y2K project team appears to have remained on schedule in spite of some new responsibilities required associated with the merger of the utility with another that took place in the Fall 1997.

2.The audit team reviewed several files pertaining to the software and firmware that have been identified by the licensee as part of the Y2K problem review. Only 14 firmware items still have Y2K susceptibility yet to be determined. These 14 items are in classifications ranked less mission critical and less important to the objectives of the Y2K project for achieving plant readiness. The team determined that this reflected favorably upon the work remaining to be done on the firmware items.

3.Davis-Besse is an older-vintage plant and, therefore, less of its control logic is implemented in digital systems. This is especially true for the safety-related systems. No Y2K problems were found in any of the limited amount of software classified as safety-related.

4.The Davis-Besse Y2K Project Plan follows the guidance provided in NEI/NUSMG 97-07.

5.The audit team was informed that Davis-Besse will not be Y2K ready by July 1, 1999 due to the activities related to the Security Data Management System, which is currently scheduled for completion on July 30, 1999. However, time is available to achieve readiness of this system and alternative access control measures will be provided should the system not be ready to support plant operation on January 1, 2000.

6.Y2K awareness at Davis-Besse has been ongoing and the issue of the Y2K problem will be incorporated into operator training that will take place in 1999.

7.The audit team interfaced with Davis-Besse Y2K project team personnel who where found to be very knowledgeable and aware of the Y2K activities of which they have ownership.

8.The audit team found that senior corporate management strongly supports Davis-Besse in their efforts to address Y2K readiness.

9.The audit team believes that the licensee will meet their Y2K readiness date for Davis-Besse as planned.

[End of Executive Summary]

-- Anonymous, December 07, 1998

Answers

The Audit Report of the Davis-Besse report appears to be a very complete and technical report on the Y2K readiness of an older nuclear power plant. Perhaps Rick would be so kind to review it and explain to us non-technical types if Davis-Besse is indeed on track to survive a Y2K-related shutdown and still be able to provide power to the people of Northwest Ohio? The URL is http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/Y2K/Audit/Y2K50346.html.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 1998

Mike Roman responded:

>The Audit Report of the Davis-Besse report appears to be a very >complete and technical report on the Y2K readiness of an older >nuclear power plant.

(snip)

yes, it does. What I don't understand is: (A): If this is an OLDER ANALOG plant with FEW digital controls, why can't it be ready by July 1 1999?

(B): What does this mean for nuclear plants that have MORE digital controls?

(C): If the "safety" systems are all analog, then does nothing else matter? (from the POV of the NRC)

-Jim

-- Anonymous, December 08, 1998