John Lobick’s “Power time bomb” (Voice, Dec. 4) was misleading and may have done your readers a disservice.
The letter fails to distinguish between the computer-based safety-related systems in nuclear plants used to automatically shut down the reactor or to activate a reactor safety system and the non-safety-related computer-based systems that are primarily databases and data collection programs that are date driven.
It is highly unlikely that the former, known as digital initiation and actuation systems, are subject to Year 2000 concerns. To be certain, a dedicated ComEd data processing team, Year 2000 Project, is verifying that they are not date-driven. Updating and modernizing the non-safety-related but still important computer systems that are date-driven is a major focus of the project. Examples are security computers, plant process computers that scan and log data, radiation monitoring systems, etc.
But the project is not limited to the nuclear plants. The group is addressing the Year 2000 problems companywide, including power plants (nuclear and fossil) and transmission and distribution systems.
