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thr 022 uk millennium bug-nuclear accident

 nuclear accident cannot be ruled out, warns uk mp london, march 24, irna - the accidental launch of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out because of the so-called millennium computer bug, the british parliament was told tuesday.

opposition conservative mp david atkinson also said that with only 284 days to go, there was a real risk that member states of nato and the western european union military alliance could be rendered "defenceless" by the problem.

opening a short debate on the issue, he referred to a warning issued by the federation of american scientists that there was no guarantee against the risk of accidental nuclear attack.

if u.s. nuclear weapons systems are not millennium compliant and fail to recognise the roll-over, they might "react in a 100 different ways, from creating a false attack alert to blacking radar systems," atkinson said.

replying for the government, defense minister of state doug henderson stressed that preparations were in hand at the uk defense ministry to tackle the millennium bug that stems from the inability of some computer software to deal with the date change from 1900 to 2000. hc/hm end ::irna 24/03/99 16:51

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), March 24, 1999