Tokyo, Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) -- An alert siren went off two minutes after midnight at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in northern Japan, the Federation of Electric Power Companies said.

The siren stopped 10 minutes later, and operations at the plant appeared normal, the industry group said. Personnel at the plant are now trying to determine if the alert was related to a Year 2000 computer malfunction.

Dec/31/1999 12:33

I sure some folks there had to change their shorts after this incident. I would have.

-- Bill (bill@tinfoil.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

ABC and MSNBC reporting a malfunction in the radiation monitoring equipment at the plant. Apparently, radiation levels are normal though.

-- Susie (Susie0884@aol.com), December 31, 1999.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/348711.asp

World Dispatches: Latest Y2K Reports From The Field

TOKYO, Jan. 1, 2 a.m. -- The radiation monitoring system for the Shiga nuclear power plant in Ishikawa malfunctioned after midnight. Radiation levels were normal, and the cause was being investigated. The monitor displays data on radiation emitted to the environment.

-- fingers crossed (eyes@too.by.now), December 31, 1999.

CBS News just reported (about 2:15 p.m. Mountain Standard Time) a possible problem in the monitoring system of a nuclear reactor outside of Tokyo. Do you think this is the same plant and CBS just got the location wrong?

-- Don Florence (dflorence@zianet.com), December 31, 1999.