Ok, so it's not terror related. We've heard a few people on tv talk about whether computer glitches could have caused it. Could the blaster worm have gotten into the power plant computers?

We wouldn't count anything out. In November, 2002, there was a terror alert at the power plant on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. We remember, because we were there at a law group meeting and we were all talking about it as we drove past the plant on the way to the Falls.

Also, around that time, it was reported that Colin Powell was going to provide Canada with a list of 22 potential terrorist targets in Canada, and power plants were on them. Canada responded by providing armed security at the plants.

Broadcast News (BN) November 15, 2002 Friday (available on Lexis):

Canada's nuclear power plants are now under armed guard against terrorist attack. Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal confirms the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has issued instructions to have an armed presence.

Dhaliwal wants them to come up with permanent guidelines on an armed response and to have armed personnel in the area where the nuclear plants exist. An audiotaped message, attributed to Osama bin Laden, warns of terrorist attacks on Canada and other western nations.

Then there was this, in the Canadian Press Newswire November 7, 2002 (and many other newspapers, available on Lexis):

The chief executive of a major Canadian energy and utilities company says foreign spies visited one of its natural gas processing plants just two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

'I can tell you that we are aware of agents of foreign powers that have been touring our facilities,'' Atco Group's Nancy Southern told a conference on counter-terrorism Thursday.

''And I can tell you as a result we have increased our threat assessments,
our security, and conducted significantly more security audits in all of our facilities.''

The Canadian angle and the Internet worm are likely irrelevant...but we thought we'd mention it, just in case.