Seven U.S. nuclear plants see minor Y2K glitches

Link

Updated 5:01 PM ET January 1, 2000

WASHINGTON(Reuters) - Seven U.S. commercial nuclear reactors experienced minor Year 2000 computer-related problems after the New Year's rollover, but none affected safety systems and were quickly fixed, government officials said Saturday.

The seven plants saw malfunctions with computer systems used to support physical plant access control, the monitoring of operating data and the calculation of meteorological data.

"None of the affected systems impacted continued safe operations," according to a statement from John Koskinen, President Clinton's Y2K trouble-shooter.

There are 103 operating nuclear plants in the United States, providing roughly 20 percent of the nation's power.

The plants and their problems follow:

-- Arkansas Nuclear in Russellville, Ark. A personnel entry dosimeter went down after a software fix was not uploaded. It was uploaded and fixed.

-- Indian Point 3 in Buchanan, N.Y. Transmission of atmospheric data to plant failed. Computer was rebooted and fixed.

-- Millstone 2 in Waterford, Conn. Averaging of wind speed at a meteorological tower and averaging of certain radiation monitor readings. Failed programs were reset successfully.

-- Nine Mile Point 1 in Scriba, N.Y. Transmission of meteorological tower data to computers failed. The system was transferred to manual entry and corrected.

-- Palo Verde in Wintersburg, Ariz. A clock in a non-critical monitoring system did not synchronize. System ran fine on internal clock.

-- Pilgrim 1 in Plymouth, Mass. A computer program failed and was fixed in a few minutes in a non-safety system.

-- Monticello in Monticello, Minn. An interface with a plant process computer failed. The system was later fixed.

Carl Paperiello, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said everything went well during the Y2K rollover, with no safety systems challenged by computer problems.

"No critical functions were affected," Paperiello said.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), January 01, 2000