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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
	Office of Public Affairs	Telephone: 301/415-8200
	Washington, DC 20555-001	E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS REPORT SAFETY SYSTEMS ARE Y2K READY

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received reports from all 103 operating nuclear power plants (units) indicating that there are no Y2K-related problems which directly affect the performance of safety systems. Sixty-eight of these plants indicated that all of their computer systems that support safe plant operation are "Y2K ready."

The remaining 35 plants reported that they have additional work to complete on a few non-safety computer systems or devices to be fully Y2K ready and provided their schedules for completing the work. Of the 35 plants, about one third have remaining work involving systems needed for power generation. Other plants have work that deals with plant monitoring and administrative systems. None of the remaining work affects the ability of a plant to shut down safely, if needed.

Typically, the remaining Y2K work to be completed after July 1 is because of a scheduled plant outage in the fall or the necessity to wait for delivery of a replacement component for a plant.

These plants have actions remaining to be completed to be fully Y2K ready:  

Additional Y2K information on all operating nuclear power plants is available at NRC's Y2K web site at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NEWS/year2000.html.

The NRC has been working with its licensees to ensure that potential Y2K issues have been identified and corrected. The NRC will continue to monitor progress at those plants which have remaining items of work and will independently verify completion of these items, including Y2K contingency plans -- procedures for dealing with unexpected events. All licensees are expected to be Y2K ready and have contingency plans in place before December 31. If, by the end of September, it appears that Y2K readiness activities will not be completed in advance of the December 31-January 1 transition, NRC will take appropriate action, including the issuance of shutdown orders, if warranted.

In addition to reviewing licensees' responses, the NRC is reviewing the results of its on-site Y2K reviews of all operating nuclear plants conducted over the past three months. By mid-July, the NRC will complete a preliminary summary of these reviews and the July 1 responses from licensees. A final report will be issued by the end of July and posted to NRC's Y2K web site.

The "Year 2000" or Y2K problem refers to computers' potential inability to recognize dates beginning with January 1, 2000, and beyond. It arises from computer programs that use two-digit numbers to represent a calendar year (such as "98" for 1998). For example, computer systems could read "00" as 1900, rather than 2000, potentially causing computer systems to malfunction. "Y2K ready" means that functions provided by computer systems will be carried out successfully with the coming of the Year 2000.