STORY:
EU Worried About Former Soviet Nuke Plants

The European Commission has expressed concern about potential millennium computer bug disruptions in public services and it's especially worried about nuclear power plants in the former Soviet bloc.

According to a Reuters story, the European Union executive said there was a lack of confidence that plants in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union had properly addressed safety and other concerns related to the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problem.

The report also said the Y2K bug could extend to electricity blackouts, breakdowns of wastewater pumping stations and overloading of telecoms networks with Y2K-related calls in member countries.

The EU executive has reportedly said reliable information was hard to get, but that some sectors in some countries were apparently not fully prepared for the date changeover. The report did not name the countries it believed were less prepared.

The report expressed the most concern about nuclear installations in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet states -- 50 power plants as well as research and other facilities.

It said the two main concerns were that the Y2K problem could cause on-site systems at power plants to fail, endangering safety, or create disruptions on electricity grids due to shutdowns of power stations or major users.

Western authorities have urged Bulgaria to close four Soviet-made nuclear reactors at Kozluduy earlier than planned, saying they posed a safety risk. The report said Y2K preparations by Western Europe's airline sector were well advanced, but risks connected to interactions with the EU's neighbors needed to more fully assessed.

Source: Reuters

DATE: 6/08/99

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