Y2K - France Disowns Own Diplomat Over Ukraine Nuke Risks

8-5-99

PARIS (Reuters) - France on Wednesday dismissed a warning by one of its own diplomats in Kiev about the hazards posed by the millennium bug in Ukraine, where the world's worst nuclear disaster occurred at Chernobyl in 1986.

The French Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesman, Francois Rivasseau, said the warning "does not correspond to the current state of thinking at the ministry".

An unnamed French diplomat based in Kiev was reported as saying that French nationals should leave Ukraine before the New Year holidays because of worries tied to potential millennium computer problems. Rivasseau denied that the diplomat had mentioned a risk of a nuclear accident and said the comments had been made in jest and were misinterpreted. Rivasseau said the embassy in Kiev had issued a statement on Wednesday saying there were "no grounds at the moment to issue any security advice whatsoever" to French nationals staying in or travelling to a foreign country around the time of the New Year.

Ukraine's nuclear authorities have said the millennium bug will not affect its nuclear plants because of their unsophisticated computer equipment.

But independent Ukrainian nuclear power expert Serhiy Parashin has said the plants could be paralyzed.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=83441

-- a (a@a.a), August 06, 1999

Answers

Any evidence that the French nukes are in better shape than Ukraine's? Or that France is somehow on top of the situation? I think they all take the month of August off to see the topless women on the beach at St. Tropez.

No, the French government is right. They should review this situation in January. February at the very latest.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), August 06, 1999.

See previous thread on this...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 06, 1999.

le French Toast : (

sorry, couldn't resist.

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 06, 1999.