Though handling external events is synchronous, no overhead due to context switching is required, and low-power operation is possible.

A Federal Bankruptcy Court judge who is hearing the Public Service case may also block low-power operation.

The plant's owners, the staff concluded earlier this week, have the money available to decommission the plant if, after low-power operation, it never enters commercial operation.

They are generally unattractive in roles where low-power operation is common, which is why they have also been unsuccessful in automobiles.

The $4.6 billion plant is completed, but it is licensed solely for low-power operation.

PSK31's efficiency and narrow bandwidth make it highly suitable for low-power and crowded-band operation.

But highly optimized designs for efficient, low-power operation and long-term reliability don't come cheap.

And the start-up raised the cost of abandoning the plant by $100 million, because even brief low-power operation created substantial radiation.

In the early 1980's, when Lilco won a license for low-power operation, it quickly moved ahead, even though such operation substantially increased the cost of an abandonment.

The default mechanism for attaining low-power operation of the radio is called ContikiMAC.