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Software Update Shuts Down Nuclear Power Plant

Posted by Soulskill on from the we-have-safety-systems-because-we-are-very-stupid dept.

Garabito writes "Hatch Nuclear Power Plant near Baxley, Georgia was forced into a 48-hour emergency shutdown when a computer on the plant's business network was rebooted after an engineer installed a software update. The Washington Post reports, 'The computer in question was used to monitor chemical and diagnostic data from one of the facility's primary control systems, and the software update was designed to synchronize data on both systems. According to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, when the updated computer rebooted, it reset the data on the control system, causing safety systems to errantly interpret the lack of data as a drop in water reservoirs that cool the plant's radioactive nuclear fuel rods. As a result, automated safety systems at the plant triggered a shutdown.' Personally, I don't think letting devices on a critical control system accept data values from the business network is a good idea."

3 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Install Complete... by ProfessionalCookie · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    UAC jokes ensue...

  2. Re:One begs the question by fucket · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    LOL XD

  3. Re:analogy and reality. by willyhill · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    It's not necessary to pretend you're five different people to make a point. Only a retarded child would think that's some sort of requirement to have your opinions be heard.

    And while I didn't say he was trolling, I'd have to disagree. What value do you see in the "M$ Windoze" crap he posts? I even bothered to go through TFA and it doesn't even mention what those servers are running. They could be Solaris or midrange boxes for all we know. But hey, twitter already decided "M$ Windoze" is to blame.

    I'm not joined to the hip with Microsoft, and I don't work for them as he conveniently claims over and over again. I manage a data center with just about every conceivable type of hardware and software mankind has produced in the past 35 years, including two mainframes. I'm typing this from an IBM T43 laptop running openSuSE 10. I use their products when it makes sense, and I use something else when it doesn't. But things like that just piss me off to no end, regardless of the target. Free software does not benefit when people like twitter spray their inane bullshit all over the internet for the world to ponder.

    (I'll take my offtopic mod now, as usual...)

    --
    The twitter monologues. Click on my homepage and be amazed.