(UPI spotlight) VIENNA, Austria, Dec. 15 (UPI)-- The International Atomic Energy Agency director is reported by the Times of London Wednesday to have identified three nuclear plants in Eastern Europe which he claims have serious Y2K problems. One is the still-functioning reactor in chernobyl.

-- choke (choke@bloomberg.net), December 15, 1999

Answers

link please

-- Llama man (llama@cool.net), December 15, 1999.

came across "bloomberg news headlines" at 9:59. Full story coming out now. It's a UPI report.

-- choke (choke@bloomberg.net), December 15, 1999.

Also, Matt Drudge is reporting same.

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), December 15, 1999.

http://www.the- times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/1999/12/15/timfgnrus02001.html? 1124027

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), December 15, 1999.

So whats the big deal??

I watch TV and all Ive heard is everything is A-OK and the stock market should hit 36,000 soon!!!

Gotta go do some more Christmas shopping--lets see---hmmm

how about some chia pets and maybe a couple more electrical appliances and.........

-- d----- (dciinc@aol.com), December 15, 1999.

The Times: World News:Chernobyl 'is millennial time bomb

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/ tim/1999/12/15/timfgnrus02001.html?1124027

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

A bust of Lenin at Chernobyl which, with two other former Soviet bloc nuclear plants, is still regarded as hazardous
Photograph: EFREM LUKATSKY / AP

Chernobyl 'is millennial time bomb'

FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN

Weak links in the chain reaction

CHERNOBYL and two other ageing Soviet bloc nuclear reactors may help to fulfil prophecies of millennial disaster if work is not done swiftly to adapt their computers.

The head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Muhammad al-Baradei, has identified three nuclear plants that are lagging seriously behind in preparing for the Year 2000 software problem: the Medzamer reactor in Armenia and the Ignalina reactor in Lithu-ania as well as the still-functioning reactor in Chernobyl.

The locations have long been a headache for Western experts. Even after considerable investment, the safety standards are well behind those in the West. The Medzamer plant, consisting of two pressurised light water reactors, is in an earthquake zone.It had to be closed in early 1989 after an earthquake, but by 1995 it was reopened. Armenia is dependent on nuclear-generated electricity. Before the re-opening, residents of Yerevan, the capital, were rationed to two hours of electricity a day.

There are Western worries about the plant's ability to withstand another earthquake, about the level of staff training and the plant emergency planning. But Armenia's dependence on the reactor is such that politicians refused to close it for tests or maintenance.

Computers are central to nuclear plant safety: they gather, compare and contrast data received from the different stages of electricity production and monitor temperatures and possible leakages.

Dr al-Baradei said the "millennium bug" problem in the atomic energy sector of the former Soviet Union was due to lack of money - maintenance is chronically underfinanced - and lack of adequate planning.

The nuclear plant that attracts the most attention is Chernobyl in Ukraine. It was there that a meltdown in 1986 triggered the world's worst nuclear accident. The people of Ukraine and Belarus are still feeling the consequences of that disaster; much agricultural land is irradiated and there has been a sharp increase in certain illnesses.

The Chernobyl reactors are of the RBMK type - graphite-moderated channel reactors. There are more than a dozen such reactors still in operation in the former Soviet Union and the chief concern is about the lack of a sufficiently large steel or concrete containment structure to block large releases of radiation. At Chernobyl, the plant's accident localisation system could not cope with the force of the explosion.

Despite these and other misgivings, one Chernobyl reactor has just reopened. It was closed for six days after leaks were discovered in the secondary cooling system for radioactive water. Two other reactors have been out of operation because of serious technical defects. The fourth, which blew up in 1986, is buried under a concrete sarcophagus.

A Chernobyl-style reactor is in operation in Lithuania. The European Commission has demanded a closure plan for the Ignalina reactor, threatening delays in Lithuania's entry to the European Union unless it complies. The first block has been active since 1983, the second since 1987. Together they account for 85 per cent of the republic's electricity. For the Lithuanians, the plant guarantees their energy, and therefore political independence from Russia. Electricity exported to Latvia and Belarus is also profitable. There is no hurry to close the plant.

Despite the safety improvements, introduced largely with the help of the Swedes, the West is growing increasingly nervous about the reliability of the plant.

(See Graphic in original article)

Weak links in the chain reaction

The key Western reservations are:

 Accident mitigation systems are very limited.

 If cooling water is lost the reactors produce faster and less stable nuclear chain reactions.

 All plants have inadequate fire protection.

 Electrical and safety systems are poorly separated.

 There is limited capability for suppressing steam in the graphite stack.

Only precise computerised control can deal with these problems. This will be under threat if the "millennium bug" problem is not solved in the next fortnight.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 15, 1999.