Potential Y2K failures are not equal: the prevention of nuclear hazards must be our top priority worldwide. We are calling for a temporary moratorium on all nuclear activities including nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel processing and atomic weapons alert status. We name this World Atomic Safety Holiday. . . Y2K will challenge all 433 reactors of the world on the same day. Since no one knows what will happen, we launch this campaign to insure that safe guards are in place on that day. . . The three campaign points are:

1. Reactor and nuclear processing facilities Holiday from December 1, 1999 until after New Year. Each facility must show it meets Y2K compliance criteria with testing and verification before restart.

2. Installation of additional reliable back-up power systems, (turbines, fuel cells or renewable sources as appropriate for the site) and also certification that diesel generators are in good working order and 3 months fuel supply, minimum.

3. De-alerting of all nuclear weapons no later than Dec 1, 1999.

An email list has been set up to facilitate information exchange and campaign planning between activists who are working on the Y2K De-Alerting Letter and Y2K WASH. To subscribe please send a blank email to:

y2k-nuclear-subscribe@egroups.com

Japanese activists have launched an international initiative called Y2K WASH Campaign -- or Y2K World Atomic Safety Holiday -- a call for all nuclear facilities to be off-line for New Years, be subject to strict criteria of Y2K compliance, given robust back-up power systems and also the de-alerting of nuclear weapons.

Trend Monitor has been systematically gathering, analysing and synthesising open source intelligence on the implications of the Year 2000 computer trouble (known as Y2K: Y = Year, 2K = 2000) for nearly four years. Y2K is a small part of a much wider set of subjects -- including the Global Economy - which have been monitored since 1986. The company has used its content analysis techniques on many thousands of articles on Y2K that have been published in the technical, business and daily press, and also analyses the best quality Internet sources.

Process

Trend Monitor's `information refinery' process extracts key thoughts from its ever growing subject knowledge base and classifies them consistently so that what is being said on a topic at one period of time can be compared with the views and reports on the same topic at other times. The classification process places different views on the same topic into juxtaposition, whereas normally they are scattered at random through the source base. The juxtaposed texts are re-combined and re-told as narrative stories. These overview stories are then used to infer implications.

This process delivers a more holistic understanding of events and also constructs a meta-description of what people are seeing through the "dark glass" of the media. By comparing what is being said at different times, the process makes it possible to see trends in events long before they become apparent even to the most diligent reader. Also, the highly ordered story evidence means that pertinent past events and insights are not forgotten. Trends are then used to underpin and evaluate scenarios, which enable appropriate responses to an ever-changing future of multi-possibilities.

I am aware, however, that we are not only challenging the superficial aspects of the industrial era but that we are attacking the core assumption which has caused humanity's progress up to this time. When people learned how to cultivate plants and herd animals, we began to believe that we were not dependent on nature. We thought that we had the skills to make choices, which could free us to do anything that we wanted. . . .
        We need to make radical changes. The longer we delay the higher the costs will be. I shall talk today about some of the shifts that are required and how we could make them in time. There are hard choices to be made and they can only be achieved on the basis of radically different governance systems.

I am writing to you early this summer because I expect that events surrounding the year 2000 computer crisis will begin to unfold rapidly after Labor Day, a short time from now. I believe these events will accelerate quickly this fall and begin to negatively impact our lives and businesses in many ways -- this year, and then peak some time next year. I sense that we really have only this brief "moment of time" left -- from now until early September -- to prepare ourselves, and to help others prepare for what appears to be a long time of troubles. It may be too late after September. I'll tell you why, below.

• Y2K Last Chance?, by Harry Schultz, 7/24/99
• Y2K Spin Control Example: GAO Report, by Doug McIntosh, 7/19/99
• How Y2K could sink the Stock Market, by S. Gadsden & J. Chevreau, 7/99
• Y2K and Martial Law, by Daniel Fisher, 7/4/99
• Oil and Natural Gas: Are They the Real Problems in Y2K?, by "R.C.", 6/21/99

• Emergency Diesel Generators defects at US nuclear plants
  This database includes incidents and reports from January 1, 1999 to the present. It shows that defects and problems occur on a weekly basis. There are 27 reports affecting 41 plants; or 40% of all US commercial nuclear plants so far this year. There is currently a petition for rulemaking before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding backup power supplies. The NRC is now three months late on making its decision.
• Y2K Nuclear Power Plant Defects in the United States
  The bottom line is -- internal and external problems can trigger a nuclear accident despite assurances by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that licensees will be ready.