UNOCAL Plant in Nikiski, Alaska went "poof" early yesterday morning.

See: http://www.msnbc.com/local/KTUU/36236.asp

Listed as "unexplained" explosion. Plant was in process of shutting down. Explosion occurred in the ammonia section of plant. Several injured.

Y2K connection or not for many of these past explosions, one thing is clear:

Seems our refineries, pipelines and chemical plants are blowing up at a faster rate than those in Kosovo several months ago and they were operating in a combat environment!

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), August 21, 1999

Answers

Can't wait till they start testing the nukes...right now I'm gonna go buy some skol and huddle in a church somewhere...

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), August 21, 1999.

Don't forget your bullets, Bob. LOL

Thanks snowleopard. Lot of 'unknowns' in these explosion reports. Hmmm

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), August 22, 1999.

If all these explosions prove not to be y2k-related, and the rollover is indeed a BITR, have we got a bunch of people interested in the follow-on topic of "Why is the petrochemical industry so accident- prone?"

Or, if 1999 was a statistically atypical year, why? Any factors in common?

For now, the farthest I'd go from y2k-causation is: "This is what happens when everybody changes their software/embedded systems at once, for *any* reason."

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), August 22, 1999.

The Unocal accident was due to "old plumbing", Have a couple friends that work at the Nikiski refinery.

-- Capt Dennis (capden@hotmail.com), August 22, 1999.