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.

[a historical overview coupled with that calming reassurance we have come to know and love]

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.

[uh, oh!]

"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.

[there's that cost benefit thing happening again. CHA CHING]

"Even if our worst fears come true and the grid goes down at midnight on December 31 and we have a station blackout, the reactor shuts down safely and we can restart after the clock changes," Beedle said.

[whew, there's a load off my mind.]

`Plants are shut down on a regular basis for administrative reasons, but we want to eliminate the possibility of having to take a unit offline for relatively unimportant reasons,'' Beedle said.

[yes, why take them down early, after all... it's only y2k]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990628/tc/utilities_nuclear_2.html

_never in human history have so many humans blindly trusted that so many other humans won't screw up._

dr. ed yardeni

-- Anonymous, June 29, 1999

Answers

Marianne,

That was an interesting post. Soooo, Beedle has a worst fear, same as me! His comments are a little like those of Koskinen. He doesn't actually avoid all the scary stuff, you just have to look between the lines. Guess that's the best we will be getting for now.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 1999