September 1999 Highlight

Armenia Bulgaria Czech Republic Hungary

Kazakhstan Lithuania Russia Slovakia

Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Cross-Cutting Activities

Y2K Contingency Planning Working Meeting Held in Prague

The U.S. Department of Energy sponsored a Y2K contingency planning working meeting to transfer international Y2K contingency planning methodologies to representatives from Soviet-designed reactors and transmission and distribution systems in five central and eastern European countries and Armenia. U.S. specialists from PNNL organized and facilitated the meeting, and the Czech Republic State Office for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) hosted the meeting at its offices in Prague on September 21-23, 1999.

The working meeting began with general introductions and presentations by three U.S. Y2K specialists. These presentations covered Y2K contingency planning using the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI) methodology, plant-specific Y2K contingency planning, and Y2K planning for transmission and distribution facilities. Following these presentations, representatives from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia made presentations on the status of their Y2K planning. A representative of Armenia attended but did not make a presentation.

Following these presentations, the group participated in breakout sessions for personnel representing the nuclear power plants and the transmission and distribution sector. In these sessions, representatives selected particular systems from their facilities vulnerable to Y2K effects and developed abbreviated contingency plans based on the NEI guidance. The last portion of the working meeting brought all of the representatives together to discuss collective Y2K contingency planning. Additional abbreviated contingency plans were developed during this session.

Five of the countries were at various stages in developing their Y2K contingency planning. Lithuania had not yet started Y2K contingency planning in the transmission and distribution area because it must coordinate this development with Latvia and Estonia. These coordination meetings have not yet begun.

In particular, it was the first time that discussions between nuclear power plant and transmission and distribution personnel had occurred for some of these countries. Plant personnel indicated that they would be ready for the Y2K rollover but had concerns about the availability of the grid due to Y2K effects in the transmission and distribution sector. The transmission and distribution personnel expressed a similar concern because of the distributed nature of the transmission and distribution dispatch system. There are several smaller companies involved with the power distribution as well as other countries over which the planners have little or no control. Therefore, the readiness of these organizations for the Y2K rollover is unknown. (Norman Fletcher, DOE, 301-903-3275; Ron Wright, PNNL, 509-372-4076)