Security of Power Plants in Pennsylvania

Accordingly, this document has been developed to provide information regarding DTL Power and the measures that have been developed and implemented to safeguard its information and information systems from a cyber threat. This document is broken down into several sections that will provide an analysis of DTL Power and the energy sector; as well as the effectiveness of cybersecurity technology/policies in the energy sector, the team’s cyber strategy, and budget.

Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, utility industries struggled to manage their nuclear power plant construction prudently in the public eye. Throughout this era, litigation chastised the mismanaged organizations to the tune of billions of dollars.

You may not know much about nuclear power, you may not know anything at all but most importantly you may not know how dangerous it is. I am going to take a look back at Chernobyl and show you just how dangerous it can be.

On Wednesday, March 28, 1979, around 4 a.m., there was a failure in the water pumps at the Three Mile Island in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This led to a partial meltdown of a nuclear power plant. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services), the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania all conducted particular studies of the radiological consequences of the accident. Approximately two million people were estimated to have received an average of one millirem of radiation, and there was a maximum dose to a person who was at the site of 100 millirem (“Backgrounder”). To put this into perspective, an exposure from a single chest X-ray is two to six millirem (“Doses”). However, this put fear into the minds of politicians and others all across the country. What the people do not know, though, is nuclear is better. Instead of using fossil-fuels and wind power, America ought to switch to nuclear energy to power the country because it is safer, cleaner, less expensive, and more reliable than the current ways of producing energy

Within the realm of open source information, a trove of resources are readily available delineating locations of individual power plants, major electrical lines, and sub stations serving the United States and Illinois. Most apparent is not necessarily the ease of access to information, but how piecing together the varied, disparate data can be used to create a picture that show location, connectivity, and potential vulnerabilities to national and state-level power grid.

The 2003 northeast blackout that saw about 50 million people from the northeast US and southeast Canada lose power for about 2 days at the cost of $6 billion dollars according to JR Minkel (Minkle) and was the biggest blackout in North American history (Minkle). The disaster lead to a report that showed the blackout was caused by a combination of human error and equipment failure. To prevent issues like this in the future a “smart grid” needs to be developed that would monitor and repair itself in the event of problems. Essentially computers and applications would be the first responder when there is an equipment failure on the grid. The problem with this solution is that by placing more of the control of the power grid into the hands of computers and applications, it opens up the grid to cyber-attacks. The economic impact of a total or even partial failure of the power grid is astronomical and makes a very appealing target to those who wish to cause

In March of 1979, just ten miles south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Nuclear Power Plant at Three Mile Island Unit 2 came close to nuclear melt down. Despite standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the plant ran for several years prior to the accident under poor conditions. Communication certainly played a role in this near tragedy, as two engineers had foreseen the consequences, but their advice went unheeded. Although most of the economic and social impacts of this incident were minimal, this unpleasant event ended the nuclear power industry in America.

To answer the question, the author will compare and analyze the three incidents that occurred in different parts of the world, in countries with different government regulations and policy establishments, and caused by different triggers: the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (NPP), U.S., Chernobyl NPP, Ukraine (former Soviet Union), and Fukushima Dai-ichi (Fukushima I) NPP, Japan.

“If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce” (Winston Churchill). Nuclear power plants have always posed as a threat to the environment. Two examples of this are the Three Miles Island Nuclear Plant and the San Onofre Nuclear Plant. Both nuclear plants had similarities, but were also very different.

According to “New York Times: A Threat at Nuclear Plants” (New York Times, 2016) states: “With a global market estimated at 500 billion to 740 billion over the next decade, both government and industry are eager to get a piece of the action. Can we really afford to play both sides of this dangerous game?”(New York Times, 2016).To that my reaction is this. One can only imagine terrorism within the nuclear plants. When the thought of nuclear plant occurs? What happens? One can only assume, nuclear bombs, missile production for a political attack to create a political gain or

Energy is an important necessity that most society cannot live without especially in the Western culture. With today’s technological advancement, the reliance of power is more than ever. Businesses, transportation systems, and all the way down to individual household relies on power. Without power, the US in particular, will not be able to function properly and this is why energy is one of the critical assets. The US needs the energy infrastructure to fuel its economy because without power, the US economy will not be able to function as well as health and welfare of its citizens will be threatened (DHS, 2016). The Energy Sector is divided into three subsectors; they are electricity, oil, and natural gas (Department of Homeland Security, 2015, p. 3). The private sector owns more than 80 percent of the US’s energy infrastructure responsible in supplying the fuel needs of the country most especially to businesses, transportation systems, and its citizens (DHS, 2016). Businesses, transportation industry, and citizens are vital for the US economy maintain its operational efficiency. The private sector’s role in securing the energy infrastructure is more than ever. This paper will discuss the prevalent risks and threats of each energy subsectors and the overall risks or threats that the Energy Sector currently faces. Also, this paper will also discuss the private sector’s roles and responsibilities in enhancing its

Nuclear weapons are complicated. To be effective, the fuel must be no more than 7 percent Pu-240. When fuel rods are spent, they are 26 percent Pu-240. To make weapons with this material would be nigh impossible for amateurs and extremely difficult for experts. Then, there are those that view nuclear plants as possible terrorist targets. However, terrorists tend to prefer soft targets that kill many people, which meltdowns tend to not

A major project I helped complete during my time at Duke Energy was the implementation of North American Electric Reliability Corporation – Critical Infrastructure Protection Version 5 (NERC-CIP V5) physical security requirements in 2015. Version 5, the newest version of the NERC CIP regulation, deemed various substation throughout our footprint as critical assets, due to this they now required more physical security elements in order to protect them from potential threats and sabotage. I was appointed the Operational Security Lead for the project. I completed the initial gap assessments for the 80+ substations that fell into scope from Hendersonville, NC to St Petersburg, Florida. The initial assessments were conducted to determine what physical

A power plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts shuts down after an enormous blizzard that interrupted the power flow. The plant's name in Massachusetts was 'The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.' The power change did not harm the public in either way. This is the state's only nuclear plant and it was shut down at 4 in the morning. The power network was interrupted and power stopped flowing through to pull power to the houses connected to those lines. The power plant was run on emergency diesel generators and if needed they could pull into another power source if it needed to. The plant owner, however, said everything was stable and it will be fine. How this article can connect to the project is that both the article and project deal with the knowledge

Once weapons of such power have been introduced, it is impossible to be completely sure that there are absolutely no nuclear weapons being built in preparation for an attack by a radical group. Therefore, countries adopted nuclear power reactors in order to allow nuclear production in secret to put the citizens of the world at ease. Regardless of their purpose, buildings with such dangerous material should not be used because people who cannot control their situation get exposed against their will.