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-- David Sunfellow (nhne@nhne.com), December 31, 1999

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JAPAN N-PLANT MONITOR MALFUNCTIONS AS YEAR STARTS Friday, December 31, 1999

http://www.pbs.org/reuters/articles/Y2K2/12_31_1999.reulb-story-bcy2kj apannuclear.html

TOKYO, Jan 1 (Reuters) - The radiation monitoring system for the Shiga nuclear power plant run by Hokuriku Electric Power Co in Ishikawa Prefecture, about 300 km (186 miles) northwest of Tokyo, malfunctioned after the start of the new year, a prefecture official said.

The official said the malfunction prevented the monitor from displaying data on radiation emitted to the environment.

But checks by prefectural officials of five on-site monitoring posts found that radiation levels were normal, the official added.

The cause of the problem, including the possibility that it was a Y2K-related glitch, was being investigated and it had yet to be fixed, the official said.

Japan has 51 nuclear reactors providing roughly one-third of the nation's electricity

-- Sunfellow (nhne@nhne.com), December 31, 1999.

MINOR FAULTS STRIKE TWO JAPANESE NUCLEAR PLANTS AT DAWN OF 2000 Saturday, January 1 3:08 AM SGT

http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/article.html?s=singapore/ headlines/000101/asia/afp/Minor_faults_strike_two_Japanese_nuclear_pla nts_at_dawn_of_2000.html

TOKYO, Jan 1 (AFP) - Minor faults struck two nuclear power plants in Japan seconds after the clock ticked into 2000 on Saturday but no danger was reported, officials said.

Government and company officials launched investigations into whether the glitches were related to the millennium bug, which caused few other problems in Japan.

If a connection is proved, they would be the first cases of the millennium bug striking nuclear plants.

A system to monitor radiation levels malfunctioned at a nuclear plant in Ishikawa, central Japan, immediately after the turn of the year, officials said.

"Two of the five monitoring computers have stopped displaying data," said Takashi Minami, a local government official at Ishikawa prefecture which operates the detection system.

"There is a possibility that this is related to the 2000 computer problem," Minami conceded, insisting however that the system worked in other ways and there was no danger.

"Our preparation might not have been good enough," he added.

And an alarm sounded for 10 minutes at another nuclear power plant in Onagawa, northern Japan, just two minutes after midnight, indicating a problem with a guage to measure sea water problems.

The alarm showed a defect with a calculator which measures the temperature of seawater before it is used as a coolant at the plant run by Tohoku Electric Power Co., a company official said.

"The alarm went off only once, and it has not resumed. This will not directly affect nuclear plant operations. We are investigating the case," Kanichiro Kobiyama, a spokesman for the plant, told AFP.

"We are not sure if it is related to the 2000 computer problem."

Takashi Ichinomiya, an official at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry working on the millennium bug, said he was investigating the incident.

But "there were no concrete problems, no danger and we have no plan to shut down the plant," he added.

Fears about nuclear power have increased in Japan since September 30 when three workers at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, set off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

They triggered a critical reaction that exposed at least 126 people to radiation and forced more than 320,000 to shelter at home for more than a day. The worst affected worker, 35-year-old Hisashi Ouchi, died December 22.

Fifty minutes into the new millennium, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi addressed the nation on television declaring that "fortunately, we have not heard of any situation affecting people's lives."

Two million state and corporate officials were on guard around the country against the bug and many people had followed government advice to stock up with three days' worth of food and water just in case.

"We have not monitored any major problem," said a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. Ltd.

JR East, the eastern Japan railway network with the world's heaviest passenger load, stopped trains for a few minutes over midnight but reported no problem in restarting.

A spokesman for Tokyo-Narita airport, Japan's main international gateway, also reported no trouble.

Fifty thousand people meanwhile packed the grounds of the timber Zojo Buddhist temple in central Tokyo with 3,000 people releasing transparent balloons at the stroke of midnight.

Monks in robes intoned Buddhist chants and swung a wooden beam by ropes to strike a five-meter (16-foot) high bronze bell, housed in the temple grounds. The bell was st

-- Sunfellow (nhne@nhne.com), December 31, 1999.

THIRD EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTION REPORTED AT JAPAN N-PLANT Updated 5:06 PM ET December 31, 1999

http://news.excite.com/news/r/991231/17/y2k-japan-nuclear

TOKYO (Reuters) - Three equipment malfunctions were reported at Japanese nuclear plants after the start of the new year but the problems had no effect on power generation or reactor operations, local and company officials said.

Two of the malfunctions were reported at the Shiga nuclear power plant about 186 miles northwest of Tokyo run by Hokuriku Electric Power Co Officials reported problems with the plant's radiation monitoring system. There was also a problem with a system used to send data on radiation emission and the state of the power plant to company headquarters and the government in case of emergencies.

A local official said the first malfunction prevented the monitor from displaying data on radiation emitted to the environment. But the official said checks of five on-site monitoring posts found that radiation levels were normal.

The monitoring system is run by the Ishikawa prefecture.

The data transmission system failed to display information soon after midnight, a spokesman for Hokuriku Electric said.

An alarm for a system processing meteorological data at Tohoku Electric Power Co's Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture also went off soon after midnight, but order was restored 10 minutes later, with no disruptions to power generation, government officials said.

The cause of the problems, including the possibility that they were Y2K-related glitches, was being investigated, company and local officials said.

Japan has 51 nuclear reactors providing roughly one-third of the nati

-- Sunfellow (nhne@nhne.com), December 31, 1999.