The Danger Of Cyber Attacks On Power Plants

Nuclear energy is the world's largest source of emission-free energy. Nuclear power plants produce no controlled air pollutants, such as sulfur and particulates, or greenhouse gases. "Renewables" like solar, wind and biomass can help. But only nuclear power offers clean, environmentally friendly energy on a massive scale. The use of nuclear energy in place of other energy sources helps to keep the air clean, preserve the Earth's climate, avoid ground-level ozone formation and prevent acid rain. “Currently, there are 103 commercial nuclear power plants producing electricity in the United States, located at 64 sites in 31 states. They are, on average, 24 years old, and

Firstly, the atomic incidents of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Russia are often mentioned as examples for nuclear plants being unsafe. In both cases failures of workers led to a meltdown in the reactors and increased radiation in the surrounding area (Henderson 12-17). And as the recent disaster in Japan shows, a nuclear crisis cannot only be caused by human mishaps, but also by unpredictable and untamable natural hazards. Consequently, nuclear crises cannot be predicted or prevented completely. Nuclear plants are, furthermore, considered uneconomical because in the eighties the construction costs of nuclear plants were underestimated and exceeded the estimation by $100 billion (Henderson 103). Therefore, the nuclear power opponents are arguing that nuclear power is burdening the American economy unnecessarily. According to the nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens, antinuclear groups are also claiming that nuclear power is not necessary for the future since renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power will be providing sufficient energy for the United States, and are at the same time much cheaper than the costly nuclear power plants (Eerkens 20). Over all, opponents consider nuclear power to risky and inefficient to “deserve further support from U.S. taxpayers” (Henderson 104).

Debates about the use of nuclear power plants in New York City have received much attention in the last few years. Many scientists believe that the use of Nuclear Power would be beneficial for New York City, since an abundant amount of electricity is necessary to fuel the Big Apple; however, one primary argument espoused by opponents is that the use of nuclear power will bring about negative effects like radiation exposure, debt and may allow the power plant to become a potential target for terrorist attacks. This paper describes selected constitutional issues related to the use of nuclear power plants with a focus on the risks it poses and concludes with implications for alternative sources of energy.

An example of the environmental success nuclear energy has provided is France in the 1970s and 1980s. The country switched from using fossil fuels and instead used nuclear energy to supply 78% of its electricity (see figure 3). This in turn lowered the country’s greenhouse emissions by approximately 2% each year since. No accidents have ever occurred at any of France's power plants (Biello, 2013).

To many times people talk about the negative side of nuclear energy, and how it can impact the environment around them, but too few talk about how nuclear energy had improved their lives. In truth nuclear energy is responsible for creating a fair amount of revenue in the local economy, state revenue, and federal revenue. For every dollar a nuclear power plant spends it generates an estimated 1.04 in the community, 1.18 in the state, and a 1.87 for the nation (Nuclear Energy Institute). With such a great revenue it would be detrimental to the nation if nuclear energy was disbanded, and deemed a great threat to national security. Nuclear energy generates roughly $16 million dollars annually for the state it resides in, and about $67 million dollars annually for the nation (Nuclear Energy Institute). That revenue generated for the state is used for the construction of new schools, improved state wide emergency response training and response times, and a whole multitude of things that just can’t compare. To add to this nuclear

[Nuclear energy is a promising alternative energy source that could greatly benefit New Jersey.] Currently the second most used energy source for power generation is nuclear. From Jersey Central Power and Light, a major power distributor for New Jersey gives a diagram of what sources they use, with Nuclear Energy being number 2 with 34.14% of electricity generated in 2014. Therefore, a great shift is power culture would not greatly affect New Jerseyans, as nuclear energy has been exercised in NJ for decades. In the entire state of New Jersey, nuclear is becoming

On March 31, 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) started a nationwide campaign to warn against the dangers faced by the U.S. utilities against the cyberattacks. According to DHS, there were an estimated 331 hacks or physical attacks against the U.S. power grid from 2011 to 2014. As of February 2016, they are occurring at a rate of once every 4 days. “A major cyberattack on the U.S. electric grid could cause over $1 trillion in economic damage, estimates ThreatTrackSecurity.com.” (MacDonald, 2016, pg. 2).

Active reconnaissance is the information collection process in which attacker gains access to the target system and performs port scans or check ways to go around the firewalls and routers. Since in an active reconnaissance attacker must enter or probe the target’s network, there is a possibility that target might get information about attacker like attacker’s IP address. (Mike Chapple, 2014)

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 this section we analyze various social impacts associated with the establishment and operation of nuclear power plants. The impacts of nuclear plants on nearby communities and people living there have been a controversial issue since long time. Nuclear power generation and utilization has several impacts on society which includes real estate, property values, employment, taxes, social services, physical and mental health, economic development and cultural parameters, etc.

PPD-21 establishes national policy on critical infrastructure security and resistance. The directive mentions 16 critical infrastructure sectors vital to the integrity of the U.S. system and their associated Federal Sector-Specific Agency (SSA). Nevertheless, PPD-21 demands a shared responsibility among the Federal, SLTT, and public and private owners and operators of critical infrastructure. Resiliency, in the context of CIP, consists of the ability to minimize the impact of a “disruptive event,” whether in “magnitude, impact, or duration” p.12. As 85% of CIKR resides under the control of the private sector, government leaders must ensure private operators and stakeholders participate in protection initiatives, which can be accomplished by

While dangers are still at hand with the use of nuclear energy, it is a necessity to “maintain the standard of living… without overwhelming the earth with pollution” (Tucker 228). Thus says William Tucker, opening up his article on the importance of nuclear energy. Tucker begins with the dangers of nuclear energy, but provides examples of why it is necessary. Tucker proclaims the efficiency of nuclear energy compared to other sources of energy, renewable and nonrenewable alike. One example he provides is that "replacing just one of the two 1,000-megawatt reactors at Indian Point in Westchester County, N.Y., would require lining the Hudson River from New York to Albany with 45-story windmills one-quarter mile apart," displaying the space needed--

As each year passes, more and more electricity will be made as a result of increased nuclear power plants around the world. The economic benefits of nuclear energy are equally advantageous as the environmental aspects.

Nuclear power plants have been around for many years. The first nuclear power plant was built in 1954. The controversy over them is whether they are harmful or beneficial to the environment and to humans. We as humans tend use a lot of energy. Nuclear power plants are so called a “strong candidate” for supplying our energy. There are many harmful remarks on nuclear power plants, and today I am here to talk about why they should be potentially reduced if not banned. For starters it can lead to cancer for children young of age, it can be used a weapon for destroying or targeting our country, and how expensive they are related to other fuel factors.

Cyber-physical systems which are embedded in the environment are used to monitor, understand the behaviors and control, the physical world. The emerging CPS application, the proliferation of smart grids has been observed in our daily life. The adversary can inject false measurement reports to disrupt the smart grid operation through the compromised meters and sensors. Those attacks are denoted as false data