Federal audits of nuclear power plants show that safety-related systems suffer from Y2K woes. A November 1998 government audit of the Seabrook, New Hampshire, nuclear plant found that reactor coolant level monitoring systems, fuel handling systems, reactor vessel level indication systems, and the computer system that oversees digital controllers would not work properly in the year 2000. NIRS's Gunter thinks of Y2K as yet another reason to ban nukes. If all US nuclear plants were shut down, the country would lose approximately 20 percent of its electric power. Nuclear units are disproportionately located in the northeast, where they supply about 40 percent of the power.
Nuclear reactors require backup power to cool their cores and fuel pools after they are shut down.
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