Nuclear Power Plant Simulation and Cybersecurity

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1468759· OSTI ID:1468759

Rice, Brandon ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Critical infrastructure protection is vital to the day-to-day operation of any country, and those systems need to be protected to the fullest extent possible. As with what was seen in Ukraine in late 2016, with the cyber attack on the power grid, these systems are susceptible to attacks that can cause serious damage, both physically and economically. This incident shut down the power grid for 6 hours, with nearly 80,000 people affected. Cyber security can be referred to as the protection of data and systems in networks, both wired and wireless, from unauthorized access or attack. In nuclear power plants, assessments of cyber security are critical to ensuring the safe and reliable operation of the systems used. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the purpose of cyber security assessments is to detect and then eliminate or mitigate vulnerabilities in the digital system that could be exploited either from outside or inside the digital system protected area. These cyber security assessments are essentially intended to reduce cyber security risk. The NRC refers to cyber security risk as the combination of the consequence to the nuclear power plant and the susceptibility of a digital system to internal and external cyber attack.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1468759
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT--17-44207-Rev000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
CyberSecurity
Nuclear Power
Simulation