http://www.news.com.au/news_content/world_content/4258765.htm

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Reactors brace for the bug From ABRAHAM RABINOVICH in Jerusalem, and agencies 29dec99

ISRAEL'S nuclear reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert will be shut down on December 31 for the first time in its three-decade history as the country braces for the new millennium.

The shutdown comes as nuclear plants worldwide are placed on high alert ahead of the millennium computer rollover, which experts admit could become a leap in the dark.

Attention is focused on ex-Soviet plants such as Chernobyl in Ukraine  the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

Although Israel rarely issues public statements concerning the Dimona reactor, where it is alleged to have produced material for scores of nuclear devices, it last week issued the shutdown announcement "to prevent irresponsible reports" that might alarm the public, an official of Israel's Atomic Commission said.

The official noted that engineers have laboured for the past two years to avoid any hitch from the Y2K bug. The reactor will begin to be reactivated gradually on Sunday, January 2. Israel does not have nuclear power plants.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been working for at least a year to co-ordinate Y2K action among operators of more than 400 nuclear plants in over 30 countries.

But it admitted that significant problems remain  notably due to lack of cash in struggling ex-communist states.

"There is concern that some nuclear power plant operators are falling behind in their efforts to complete the necessary Y2K tasks owing to late actions and a shortage of funds," IAEA head Mohamed El Baradei said. He did not specify which plants or countries were concerned, but an IAEA spokesman said the three main ones were Chernobyl, Ignalina in Lithuania  of the same type as the Ukrainian plant  and Armenia's sole facility.

"It doesn't mean we believe there's any acute danger . . . it's just that if something unusual happens, then they may not have all of their computerised systems working," the spokesman said.

Experts insist the most serious possible consequence is an automatic reactor shutdown, causing power cuts.

To counter specific risks, some plants have agreed to take specific action over the millennium period. Ignalina in Lithuania, for example, will limit its output to 50 per cent capacity.

IAEA experts will on Friday night monitor the midnight computer rollover, as it sweeps from Asia through Europe and across to the Americas, to learn from any incidents that do occur and possibly alert other plants.

"I wouldn't be here if there was something dangerous," said Dobroslav Dobak, spokesman at the Jaslovske Bohunice plant in Slovakia, which is being closed early.

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-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 29, 1999

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Those Israelis are smart folks, the won't cut off their nose to spite their face. Their government has what our's doesn't:

COMMON SENSE (which really isn't very common these days)

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 29, 1999.