Prophet Dick Mills about Peach Bottom :

http://y2ktimebomb.com/PP/RC/dm9909.htm

[Snip] On February 8, at the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania they were conducting Y2K smoke tests on the plant process computer.

The tester entered a post 2000 date. Nothing at all appeared to happen. He assumed he entered the date wrong, so he did it a second time. This time the process computer functions failed, and as a consequence, the SPDS (Safety Parameter Display System) went blank. It took several hours, and reportedly several attempts, to restore things to normal.

There are several good lessons to learn from this incident, and several conclusions to avoid jumping to.

There were apparently unresolved Y2K bugs in the two remediated computers that went undiscovered until testing.

It was not the apparent Y2K bugs that jeopardized the plant, it was an incorrect and ad hoc testing procedure.

The Y2K bugs were exposed by the test. That's the reason for testing. From this viewpoint, the test was a success.

The failure of the plant computer and SPDS functions did not cause a meltdown. The plant could still be shut down safely without these functions.

Not all critical safety systems are essential to safety. This sounds contradictory. The reason is overkill. We start with something we consider safe. Through the years, we decide it could be safer and add more layers of logic and computers.

[End Snip]

The Washington Post writes :

[Snip]

Plant managers say the incident posed no risk to the public, but they nevertheless began planning to shut down the facility, which supplies electricity to the Philadelphia area. They eventually scotched those efforts after the computer specialists determined the source of the problem--a technician had improperly set the test clock--and restored the systems seven hours later.

Although the cause was human error, technology specialists say the glitch here illustrates an unanticipated peril of the Year 2000 problem: As computer systems that have been repaired are now being tested in live conditions, inadvertent mistakes and undiscovered bugs can bring the machines--and the organizations that rely on them--to a grinding halt.

[End Snip]

Q1: Was this test a smoke test ?

Q2: Was the testing procedure incorrect and ad hoc ?

Q3: I do not understand that they plan to shut down Peach Bottom. The cause was human error not y2k.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 1999

Answers

Please forgive me my bad english in the head of the question. It should be doing and not doning. Sorry.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 1999

Oops,

Forget Q3, it is normal to shut down a power plant when the operator is no longer informed. My interpretation was to shut down Peach Bottom in the future.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 1999