ANSTO began its Y2K compliance program in July 1997. It has completed an inventory of its systems, and has implemented a plan to address Y2K compliance. The Office of Government Online, which reports to Federal Cabinet, regularly reviews progress.
ANSTO intends to meet the Federal Governments June 1999 target for its agencies to complete Y2K compliance programs.
The HIFAR research reactor is not reliant upon computers for its operations. It began operations in 1958, long before general use of computers. However, ANSTO has contingency plans in place for reactor operations in the event of external services not being available at midnight on December 31, 1999.
ANSTO has quadruple redundancy in regard to electricity supply: it can draw power from Jannali or Engadine substations and has two large diesel generator sets, each backing up the other. Even if this quadruple redundancy is insufficient, the reactor closes itself down within one second.
In regard to water, in addition to mains supplies, ANSTO has an independent supply sufficient to provide its entire site for two days.
ANSTO does not expect absolute guarantees of continuity of supply of electricity, water or communications for the night of December 31, 1999, and has additional contingency plans for HIFAR. They dictate that if there is a failure of external power supply or telecommunications, the reactor is shut down until they are restored.
ANSTO will revise these contingency plans progressively against further information provided by external services suppliers.