Kiev - The head of Ukraine's nuclear energy authority, Energoatom, yesterday said the Y2K computer bug posed no threat to the country's Soviet-era nuclear reactors.
"We have checked and tested all equipment at all reactors," Mr Mykola Dudchenko told a news conference. "These checks showed that there is no equipment at our stations susceptible to the year 2000 problem in management, defence or security systems."
Officials in Ukraine, site of the catastrophic 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl atomic power station, have said there can be no repeat of the disaster in the former Soviet republic on January 1st next. Computer experts fear the change of date could wreak havoc in any country with older computer systems which could fail to recognise the last two digits of the year and malfunction.
A US government report earlier this year said Ukraine's electricity, transport, defence and other systems could be vulnerable to possible problems.