wrote:
>
>Good Grief - not more of this nuclear Y2K clap-trap. To quote the
>Nuclear Regulatory Commission Y2K webpage:
>
>"The NRC has no indication that significant Y2K problems exist with
>safety-related systems in nuclear power plants for those systems that directly
>affect the
>ability to safely operate and shut down the plants. All plants can be shut down
>safely, if necessary, after January 1, 2000.
PECO Energy's Peach Bottom Unit 2 nuclear facility near York, Pa. recently
experienced a 7 hour lockup of the plant's primary and backup plant
monitoring system computers during Y2k testing. The NRC weekly summary of
2/12/1999 (http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NEWS/WIR/week3.html) reports that
operators lost the plant's Safety Parameter Display System (SPDS),
Emergency Response Data System (ERDS), and 3d Monicore thermal limit
monitoring system during the event.
Engineers had taken the backup PMS computer off-line and had advanced the
PMS clock to a year 2000 Date. This led to a lockup of the backup PMS, and
the system transferred to the primary, on-line PMS computer. The engineers
did not recognize that the system had transferred and, believing that the
original command was not accepted, again advanced the system clock, causing
the primary PMS to lock up also. Several initial attempts to restore the
PMS computers were unsuccessful, and operators determined that this
constituted a major loss of emergency assessment capability. The PMS
computers are not Y2K compliant, but the engineers believed that this would
not impact the testing. Operators did not expect the testing would affect
the on-line PMS computer. PECO Energy plans to perform a full root cause
analysis of this event.
In other nuclear Y2k news, Mr. William D. Travers, NRC Executive Director
for Operations testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air,
Wetlands, Private Property and Nuclear Safety Committee on Environment and
Public Works on 2/24/1999 that, "To date, the NRC staff has not identified
or been apprised of any Y2K problems in nuclear power plant systems that
directly impact actuation of safety functions." (ref:
(http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/Y2K/WDTY2K.html)
In still *other* news, Generalissimo Fransisco Franco remains dead.
--
Rick Cowles (Public PGP key on request)
www.euy2k.com : Electric Utilities and Y2k
Toll Free 1-877-503-2323
"ZAPPED" : A Household Video Primer for Dealing with Long Power Outages
RealPlayer(tm) clip at: www.euy2k.com/video.htm
-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), February 26, 1999