SCOPE OF THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM AT
OPERATING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

ISSUES CONSIDERED MOST SIGNIFICANT

The significance of the Year 2000 problems at operating nuclear plants will vary from plant to plant, depending on the computer applications that are affected by the Year 2000 change and its consequences. Although the staff believes that safety-related safe shutdown systems will function as intended, nevertheless, in the worst case, the staff can hypothesize a scenario involving a potential common-mode failure to several non-safety-related, but important, computer-based systems necessary for plant operation that could significantly challenge the plant staff, e.g., a licensee could be faced with a plant trip as a result of a Year 2000 problem which results in the loss of offsite power and subsequent complications in tracking post-shutdown plant status and recovery due to a loss of emergency data collection and communications systems. Note that even under such a scenario, plant operators are trained to use their symptom-based emergency procedures and safety-related-post accident monitoring parameter indications to maintain safe plant shutdown conditions.

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-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), March 13, 1998