Thursday July 8 11:30 AM ET
Scared Of Y2K? Head For A Nuclear Reactor
By Matthew Green
LONDON (Reuters) - Deadly radiation, complex computers and the year
2000 bug sound like an apocalyptic mix, but watchdogs say nuclear
power plants will be as safe a place as any to greet the new year.
In Western Europe, technicians have been combing bugs from reactor
systems and making contingency plans to cope with malfunctions for
years. Eastern Europe lags behind, but the International Atomic
Energy Agency says it sees only a remote chance of catastrophe.
``One can never rule out some difficulties but what I expect is that
there won't be problems of a nuclear safety nature,'' said Zig
Domaratzki, head of the Department of Nuclear Safety at the IAEA in
Vienna.
He said the bug might cause faults but only as trivial as those you
would tolerate in a new car. ``There may be little glitches that
show up here and there, but I'll make sure the brakes work and I can
turn off the ignition.''
Engineers say that even if computer systems freeze as the clock ticks
midnight on New Year's Eve, reactor operators can simply throw a
switch to shut them down.
PROBLEMS? JUST THROW A SWITCH
They say safety circuitry has none of the software prone to the
millennium bug, which can paralyze computers not adapted to
handle the change to 2000 and certain other dates.
``Our protection systems are not date-sensitive, they don't know
whether it's 1066 or the year 2000,'' David Hunns, superintending
inspector of the British government's Nuclear Safety Directorate,
said.
But even if the big, red ``shutdown'' buttons are bug-proof, more
mundane malfunctions could spring nasty surprises. Plants should
wedge doors open at the New Year to guard against errant security
systems, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the Union
of Concerned Scientists in Washington.
``We think that the emergency systems these plants have are pretty
much invulnerable,'' he said. ``It is the support systems that
are more susceptible.''
Nuclear engineers admit danger can also lurk beyond reactor walls. A
bug-induced failure in the electricity grid could cut a plant's
outlet for the power it generates, forcing operators to turn it off
to prevent overheating.
Unplanned shutdowns set controllers' adrenaline pumping, increasing
the margin for error and piling stress on plants.Reactors then depend
on diesel to fuel coolers to prevent them from melting down, supplies
of which could be disrupted if the bug hits transportation networks.
Western European grids are working to ensure they do not fizzle out
over New Year, updating computers that use only the last two digits
of the year and could confuse 2000 with 1900.
``The focus is now turning to Eastern Europe,'' said Howard Ramsden
of Unipede-Eurelectric, which groups international
power producers and distributors.
ECHOES OF CHERNOBYL
Ever since the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded in April 1986,
wafting a radioactive cloud across Europe, millennium doomsayers have
portrayed reactors in the former Eastern bloc as the most accident-
prone. A lack of Year 2000 compliance data from more than 60 aging
plants across Russia and Eastern Europe makes risk assessment tricky.
``They think that they can get by without a problem, but we're not
entirely convinced that that's the case,'' said IAEA spokesman David
Kyd.
Chernobyl's operators say the plant is too obsolete to suffer serious
year 2000 problems and the IAEA said it agrees. But former Chernobyl
director Serhiy Parashin told reporters in March that Ukrainian
officials misunderstood the bug and it could paralyze the country's
five nuclear power plants.
To nuclear energy's opponents, the Chernobyl disaster showed that the
consequences of a millennial meltdown make even the tiniest chance of
an accident unacceptable.
``The very term 'risk' implies some possibility of elimination, but
when you look at Chernobyl you see that the worst can always
happen,'' said Dominic Jenkins, nuclear campaigner for environmental
group Friends of the Earth.
Meanwhile, in Britain, as much of the nation prepares to party over
the New Year, government engineers plan to hunker down
in an emergency room -- just in case.
Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
"The object of opening the mind, as of opening
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
- G. K. Chesterton -
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