The Y2K status for all 103 US operating nuclear plants has been released at the NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/gmo/nrarcv/99-138.htm
Regards,

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

Answers

Wow, what a shock!! The NRC has come to our rescue and we no longer have to worry. Isn't it great that the NRC is part of such a "truthful" Administration!

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

Catch this from the web page referred above: "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."

Wanna bet we don't see a single shurdown, no matter what the status of each of the plants?

Love that weasel word, "Y2K-ready." And that's only of "safety systems."

Two questions - hope someone can help:

1. Anybody know a good source for potassium iodide?

2. How will I know if there's been a nearby nuclear incident, if communications should be down?

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

I heard on CNN today that 35 of the Nukes are not ready, but have one more month before they decide final status of whether to shut them down. Cannot find anything in print to support this news, yet.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

lori,

in answer to your first question regarding the ki check out this thread, i believe there are two sources for ki listed, also diane mentioned sea salt, sea weeds,etc., as the natural way to go.

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000yna

as for your second question... ring up the nrc and ask them for the name of the company that supplies them with all those great crystal balls. you know, the ones they use in order to assure us that all will be well in the world of nuclear during the y2k rollover.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

To Lori,Rick and Co., I live out on the west coast just outside the secondary alert zone of Diablo Canyon NPP,one of the more modern and I believe also the largest plants, it was completed in 86'(?)with a number of problems before it was brought online. I don't hear alot about it's status, but if I can i'd like to pick up a gieger counter, a dosimeter and dosimeter calibration device from a lab supply or surplus dealer.As for the potassium iodide- it's available from a few of the food storage organizations in Utah etc.in tablet form or- you can have your local pharmacist mix up a batch of Lugol's iodine, which has about 24% potassium iodide and can be added to an 8 oz. glass of water at a dose of 6 to 8 drops no more than twice daily for not more than 3 days in a row for the average adult. that should give the thyroid what it needs, but don't hang out in a contaminated area. Hope it doesn't come to that.If your local area fire dept. has a hazmat team they probably have Rad. kits but my experience with fire dept.'s out here is they are not proficient with radiological equiptment, It's considered a distant absurdity and we are trained only once every few years by civil defense.Incidently I'm sad to have to report that most fire deptartment managers have attended the kind of breifings that dismiss the threat of Y2k- so there is very little in the way of contingency planning going on in my circles, and i've got my ear to the ground all the way down to the L.A. area - hope they're right or we are going to be understaffed undersupplied and very busy.It boggles my mind that we seem to be in a phase where no one can get a firm fix on the severity of this thing, and an awful lot of people can't be bothered to care. -- Chris

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

I just got done listening to the dolts at CNN report that there are only 35 nuclear plants that are not.....drumroll please.... Y2K COMPLIANT. Yes you heard correctly, I said compliant.

These people have no idea what they're reporting. Truly talking heads. Teleprompter heaven. Wag the Nukes. Argghhh!!!!

Oh and no one at all reported the Union of Concerned Scientists story.

I hate to say this, but I'm starting to think this admin's gonna roll way to many dice here.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

Lori - about your second question - how would you know if an accident has happened if communications are down. I posed that same question in a couple of threads. In doing some research on KI it seems that it is quite safe, and it is most effective if taken BEFORE or within 6 hours of exposure. Also, in the case of Chernobyl, the affected area was much greater than the narrow evacuation zones right around the plant. Therefore it seems to me that if you are going to go to the trouble of securing a supply of KI for your family, it probably wouldn't hurt to decide that IF the power goes down and doesn't come back on pretty quickly, and IF you don't hear reassuring radio or TV reports that you feel you can trust (which would include NO NEWS), then go ahead and start taking the first dose. It seems that even in the case of station blackout it would take at least a couple of hours for a BAD THING to happen, so you would have time to decide what to do... if you already have the KI of course.

A good source of info on KI is Anbex.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

Lori - just wanted to add that KI should NOT be considered a substitute for evacuation if you are in the evacuation zone. Find out where the closest nuke plant is from you, and what the prevailing breezes are. But it seems that in a worst case scenario - a nuclear "event" combined with grid and telecommunications outages - evacuation plans will be ..... messy at best. Think it through ahead of time.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 1999

"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."

Two points - on the Don't worry, be happy press release page the NRC lists EXPECTED "ready" dates as late as December 15th and 16th. (leaving a full TWO WEEKS for testing). The deadline was supposed to be June 30th or July 1st, right? So now Dec. 16th is okay, but we are expected to believe the the NRC is going to put on its tough face the end of September? After they have already approved the Interim Policy just so they can skirt the regulations and not shut down? Ooooh... these guys are TOUGH.

Also, you'll note that most of the NRC statements say something like - there is no Y2K issue that would interfere with the safe shutdown of the plant. [sounds like weasel words to me] If the info below is correct:

The Brookhaven National Laboratory, in report released in August 1997 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, estimated an accident at a plant like Calvert Cliffs after being shut down for 3 = years could produce 29 fatalities within a year, 33,200 additional cancer deaths after one year, and cost $186 billion. Link

... if that is correct, then what f-ing difference does it make if "None of the remaining work affects the ability of a plant to shut down safely, if needed." ?????

-- Anonymous, July 08, 1999

Hi all,

I just clicked over to the site mentioned above listing the location of nuclear plants in the world. Then I went further to try and find out if I am in a "danger" zone - but none of the links worked. (Now, why am I not surprised.) I live about an hour west of Byron I and II in Northwest Illinois - should I be looking into KI or evacuation? (Great, I thought I was safe getting a wood stove and storing food - now I'll have to figure out how to take it all on the road,;))

Of course, Com Ed (the owners of Byron I & II) told us last year at a Y2K meeting I sponsored that they weren't going to test these two plants until 4th quarter 1999, because they wanted to correspond with their scheduled shut-downs.

What, me glow?

Thanks for your help.

Terri

-- Anonymous, July 08, 1999

I recommend two publicly available documents for anyone interested in gathering further information about commercial nuclear plants in their area. Each plant has a Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR, also sometimes called an Updated Final Safety Analysis Report) which describes how the plant and its systems are designed. This would be a good source of information for anyone wanting to know the functions of those systems listed as still requiring remediation. This document (and it will be many volumes in size) is available at the NRC's public reading room (all licensed plants) and, for a specific plant, at a nearby public library. Each plant also has an Emergency Plan for anyone interested in reading up on that subject. It will describe actions the utility will take at various emergency levels (for example, how far out their emergency planning zone extends) and is available at the same locations as the FSAR.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 1999

Did anyone else living in South Jersey happen to notice that ALL the nukes surrounding us were on the 'not-compliant-yet' list??

Saddest irony of all? Rick Cowles... wins the prize for worst place to live.

Peach Bottom, Limmerick, Salem, Hope, Oyster...

-- Anonymous, July 08, 1999

Terri - I had no problem accessing the maps, but here is another link you might try. All the nuke plants in the U.S. and a list at the bottom of them, with their status (not Y2K status.. just whether they are currently operating or not). Remember, even those not generating power can have "incidents" if they loose offsite power for their cooling pools. And there may be other defense or research sites not on this map.. but it is a starting point.

P.S. Don't we all like how until recently we were all told that nuclear plants were no problem because they were old and had all analog stuff? Y2k was not supposed to be an issue. So why are some plants not even EXPECTING to be "ready" (not compliant) before Nov. or Dec. ????? Y2K news radio discussed that on today's or yesterday's show. Here's the link: Y2K News Radio

"Fingers crossed, cheeks tight, toes curled, we look forward to that "E ticket" ride into the new millennium." John Anderson - Y2K News Radio

-- Anonymous, July 08, 1999

I get the impression that KI (potassium iodide or iodate) is seen by some to be a shield against damage from radioactive nuclides. If true this is a dangerous illusion.

KI does one thing only. It satisfies the thyroid gland's demand for iodine. Once that demand is met, uptake of radioactive I-131 is minimized, greatly reducing the risk of thyroid dysfunction.

KI has no effect whatsoever on cell damage from ionizing radiation. Fission products emit gamma radiation (with incidental X-ray radiation produced when gamma radiation encounters metal), as well as beta and alpha particles, whose primary risk is internal after ingesting contaminated food or breathing radioactive dust.

I have an RM-60 radiation monitor produced by Aware Electronics. It measures gamma, alpha and beta radiation (see Specifications). This is their low-end unit.

It was sensitive enough to pick up the transient increase in background radiation here near Atlanta a few days after the big brush fire near Chernobyl in April 1996. The background readings went from 11-14 to 19-23 micro-R/hour, tapering back to normal by the second day. This was in a 3rd floor apartment in a wood frame structure.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 1999

Yeah, Moving - this was not a pretty list for me to read.

I'm following the situation with much interest and trepedation. There was a big article in the local newspaper today about this. As you note, I'm smack dab in the middle of a bevy of non-ready plants.

So much to do. So much I want to write. So little damn time.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 1999

Rick- no shit.

Why do you think I keep changing my name? Get out of this potential hell-hole!! You have done more than your fair share.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 1999