Excerpts from 6-27 Reuters news story at dailynews.yahoo.com: Nuclear Power Industry Works To Allay Y2K Fears By Deena Beasley LOS ANGELES (Reuters)  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 next week 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. 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 (AMEX:SCEq - news) 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.

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.

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. ---------------

-- Anonymous, June 27, 1999

Answers

Excerpts from 6-27 Reuters news story at dailynews.yahoo.com, heres the link again: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html? s=v/nm/19990627/tc/utilities_nuclear_1.html

-- Anonymous, June 27, 1999

Dontcha just love how they put out a PR piece in advance of the report so that we all are alerted as to how we will feel after we see the report? The report will Allay Y2K Fears

Why don't they just wait and gather all the data, put it out for the public to see and let us make up our own minds whether our Y2K fears are allayed or not. The reports aren't even in, and yet we already know that they will "allay Y2K fears". I feel better already, don't you?

I like this too as a reason why plants are putting off the work until fall: ``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.

I don't know... just maybe there are a few consumers out there who would have their fears just a wee bit more allayed if the work was done NOW - while there is still time to get replacement parts or correct programming.

"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."

So... even though we are assured that they can shut down the plant safely, there is this acknowledgement that power is necessary for cooling the plant and preventing meltdown. No problem.. they've got generators. Okay... fears allayed.

"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."

"most" = not all. Wasn't there just some report somewhere that there are over 10,000 components that need to be repaired in every plant? No problemo... only 3% failed testing. And some of the work and testing will wait until fall - when rates are lower. No problemo.

"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."

So... they have 25% to do in 3 months. And NEARLY ALL would be "up to speed" (whatever that means) by June 30.

allay... allay... allay... sleep... sleep... sleep

-- Anonymous, June 28, 1999