STORY:
Russia Lagging On Y2K Fixes

Less than 30-percent of computers that need fixing have been fixed

Despite wide spread optimism that the Y2K computer bug is being resolved around the world, Russian telecommunications officials say their country has fixed less than a third of its Y2K bug problems. Russia had announced that its aging nuclear power reactor network was "at risk" of complications from the computer date crisis including the Chernobyl nuclear power station.

Russian officials reportedly have said the country doesn't have the money to fix the problem and is behind schedule. Bureaucrats say Russia will be ready with its mission critical systems by November. News agencies report Russia should have spent 13 billion rubles by now to fix the problem, instead, only two billion had been spent.

Russia has said that the testing of its nuclear power plants will be completed by September including Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. Chernobyl has aging Soviet-era reactors but because the cores of these reactors are not run by computers, a threat of the Y2K bug is less severe say nuclear experts. The but could threaten only secondary computer programs at Chernobyl and not linked directly with the electricity production or operating a nuclear reactor say Russia nuclear officials.

Source: Reuters

DATE: 07/12/99

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