NUCLEAR
An environmental group that is based in the USA is currently in the process seeking the closure of all nuclear power plants in the country that are not able to adequately demonstrate that they are free of the millennium bug, Reuters reports.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service wants nuclear power plants that may still carry the millennium bug in their computer software to close on 1 December 1999. The software problem is caused by a programming shortcut which was used in early software development which coded years with only two digits. When the date switches from (19)99 to 00, the effect on programs is unpredictable.
The Nuclear Energy Institute said that the nuclear industry has so far found the millennium bug problem challenging but manageable. It has also pointed out that the systems that shut down plants when safety is under threat respond to the plant conditions or to operator instructions, and not to the date.