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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2827)	11/21/1998 1:45:00 AM
From: Investor-ex!	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

Hi John, Flaws found in Y2k conversions: jrnl.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2827)	11/22/1998 8:16:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

' Re: The Grid From: rcowles@waterw.com (Rick Cowles) 1:57 Subject: Re: The Grid On Sat, 21 Nov 1998 23:30:07 GMT, me@home.net (Spam) wrote: >Nukes in the US provide ~20% of the power generation. However the >nukes are actually less complex and use mainly analog technology. I agree that safe shutdown systems are almost exclusively analog. I'm not worried for one minute about the ability to scram/trip (as the case may be) plant in a heartbeat if the need is so indicated. Symptom based EOP's should lead to this decision by a competent operator if, in fact, that situation were to occur due to a loss of control room computer systems or annunciator blackout. Safe shutdown isn't the issue. To say that computers aren't used in the operation of a nuclear facility is absolute puffery (I'm not accusing you of this; I'm accusing NEI and the industry for fostering this impression). Walk into the control room of a BWR 4/5 that's operating with a Bailey-designed control room or GE PGCC. True, there are analog displays all over the place, but operating without the computer enhancements is one scary thought. (As part of my systems engineering training, I spent 8 months in an SRO certification class, then two weeks simulator time - after the simulator time, I elected to continue systems engineering rather than pursuing SRO licensing.) And try to reconstruct an event without your SOE recorder. Let's get outside of the control room for a moment. Nearly every PWR and BWR in the country has gone to digital feedwater control over the past 8 or so years. There are Y2k issues with digital feedwater control in many plants. There are many other peripheral systems that need to be reviewed and fixed. There are many administrative systems that need to be reviewed and fixed. The NRC knows this, but is downplaying it. The industry isn't admitting it. One thing I can say with certainty: no one is getting all of the details of the ongoing NRC audits from the 'summaries' that the NRC is publishing. It is not pretty. That is why I continue to feel that a vast majority of nuclear plants will not be operating during the century transition. There simply ain't no way to test the whole magilla before the actual event (rollover to 01/01/2000) on an operating facility. Again, it isn't a safe shutdown issue. It's a regulatory issue, and the ability of operators to safely operate the plants within safety analyses boundaries during normal operations. Please don't hit me with Tech Spec's and operating licenses - LCO's don't cover this one. But TS 3.0.3 certainly does (for the layperson, that's the license clause that says "shut the damn thing down if you don't know what's going on.") (Note: this would have gone as email if I had an email address for Mr./Ms. Spam. There's some technical references included within the above that will make zero sense to many who read this.) -- Rick Cowles (Public PGP key on request) www.euy2k.com : Electric Utilities and Y2k Now Shipping From AMAZON.COM! "Electric Utilities and Y2k" - The Book www.euy2k.com/book.htm