United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 99-220 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Tuesday, October 19, 1999)

NRC CONDUCTS FULL-SCALE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE

IN PREPARATION FOR Y2K

In preparation for the “Year 2000," the Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted a fullscale exercise October 15 to test its Y2K contingency plan. Involved in the exercise were the

headquarters operations center, NRC’s regional incident response centers, three fuel cycle

facilities and 11 nuclear power plants.

The exercise was conducted to test the readiness of the NRC to deal with possible

events during the transition to the Year 2000. The exercise tested the three major facets of

the agency’s Y2K contingency plan - (1) the ability of the NRC to respond to Y2K-related events

at a nuclear power plant or fuel cycle facility; (2) the ability to respond to licensee requests for

enforcement discretion permitting a nuclear power plant that faces a Y2K-related problem to

continue operating to support electrical grid stability; when safety is not an issue and (3) NRC’s

ability to share information with its licensees concerning Y2K problems.

The exercise successfully demonstrated the agency’s ability to communicate with its

licensees and the public during several simulated Y2K challenges. It also demonstrated the

ability to retrieve information on the status of foreign nuclear power plants from the NRCdeveloped Y2K early warning system.

Twelve other countries participated in providing status reports during the NRC exercise.

They were: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the

Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

The agency also demonstrated its ability to identify and compensate for potential Y2Krelated failures within its headquarters operations center. When a simulated communications

failure occurred at headquarters, all operations shifted to the Region IV Office in Arlington,

Texas, consistent with the agency’s Y2K contingency plan. This included handling simulated

emergency notifications from various NRC licensees, event responses, and enforcement

discretion requests from licensees.
During the exercise, NRC officials tested communications with NRC inspectors at

nuclear plants across the country that were participating in the exercise, including use of

satellite-based communications systems, and provided timely and accurate status information

to a simulated White House Information Coordination Center (ICC). A mock press conference

with journalism students from American University was held at the simulated ICC Joint Public

Information Center.

Overall, the exercise served to share information among the various organizations to

assure all response efforts were coordinated and communicated effectively to protect public

health and safety in the event of a Y2K-initiated event at a nuclear power plant or other licensed

nuclear facility. The exercise was successful. However, several valuable lessons were learned

which will allow the NRC to improve its preparedness for the Y2K transition. A summary of

these lessons will be placed on the NRC website at the address listed below.

The "Year 2000" or "Y2K" problem refers to a computers' potential inability to recognize

dates beginning with January 1, 2000, and beyond. It arises from computer programs that use

two-digit numbers to represent a calendar year (such as "98" for 1998). For example, computer

systems could read "00" as 1900, rather than 2000, potentially causing computer systems to

malfunction.

The NRC's Y2K Contingency Plan is currently available at:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/NEWS/year2000.html

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