Friday December 31 6:53 PM ET

Russia, Chernobyl Pass Millennium Bug Test

By Neil Winton

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia passed the millennium
bug test and even the troubled Chernobyl atomic
power plant in Ukraine was running normally as
clocks struck midnight in eastern Europe.

The millennium computer bug had apparently been
tamed as midnight arrived first in Tonga and then
moved across the world to New Zealand, Australia,
Japan, China, India, and the Middle East without
apparent incident.

The only problem was in Japan, where three
equipment failures were reported at the Shiga
nuclear power plant about 300 km (185 miles)
northwest of Tokyo. Company officials said
problems with some of the plant's monitoring
systems had no effect on power generation or
reactor operations.

Telephone networks and electricity grids from
Vladivostok on Russia's Pacific coast to the
capital and beyond defied Y2K doomsayers and
remained in operation without disruption past
midnight.

Atomic power stations were functioning normally
and the Strategic Rocket Forces said Russia's
thousands of nuclear missiles were safe.

``Everything is okay. Everything is as it was.
There are no failures, everything is working,''
said an officer working at the main command
bunker at a secret location outside Moscow.

Russian and U.S. military officials working side
by side in the American state of Colorado said
there were no disruptions at a command center
they had set up to monitor nuclear missiles.

Chernobyl Running Normally

In Kiev, Ukraine's Chernobyl atomic power plant,
site of the world's worst nuclear accident, was
running normally despite earlier fears of a
possible millennium computer glitch, a station
official said.

``Everything is fine. The station's equipment has
entered 2000 without malfunctions. The (one
operational) reactor is working normally. We hope
everything will continue working all right,''
shift manager Olexander Oleseyuk said.

Earlier report cards from Asian public power
utilities, telephone companies, banks and oil
refineries were consistently positive.

The only shadow on the proceedings was a meeting
called for 2200 GMT Friday between Saudi Arabia,
Mexico, the U. S. Energy Secretary and the head
of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

According to industry sources, the meeting would
discuss whether the millennium computer bug
warrants the release of any extra oil supplies to
a world oil market which has seen prices double
this year.

Later the IEA said it saw no disruption to world
oil supplies so far from Y2K, and no need to
release emergency oil.

U.S. based companies with operations in Asia
declared a problem-free start to 2000. These
companies included Caterpillar Inc, Global One,
the communications alliance between Sprint Corp,
Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom, credit
card company MasterCard, and Northwest Airlines
Corp.

In New York, some hours before midnight there,
U.S. information technology services company
Computer Associates International Inc warned that
three new computer viruses were lurking to take
advantage of fears about the changeover to 2000.

Earlier New Zealand, Australia and Japan reported
no disruptions in key sectors including
telecommunications, electricity, water and
aviation.

All 12 of New Zealand's key utility sectors
reported normal operations as of 1300 GMT Friday,
two hours after the country became the first
industrialized nation to greet the new
millennium, officials said.

The world was watching New Zealand carefully as
an early warning center for potential problems if
computers mistake 2000 for 1900 and crash or
misbehave as a result.

The Australian central bank said the country's
financial system had ticked over to 2000 safely.

But even as Europe and the United States watched
Asia's progress in passing through to the year
2000, France issued a last-minute warning about
Y2K computer viruses, saying hackers had been
unusually active recently and could use the
millennium as a chance to release new viruses
into computers around the world.

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