Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on September 05, 2003 10:21 PM
While it's been a few years since I was last in a nuclear plant, I'd suspect that a nuclear plant would be less vulnerable than most power plants. For one thing, only two new plants have gone on line since 1990 (Source: http://www.nei.org/doc.asp?catnum=3&catid=13)<nobr>.<wbr></nobr> Most, last time I checked, were still using early 80's type computer systems. It's harder to hack a small-and-stupid OS.
Also, nuclear plants are designed with redundant independent parallel monitoring instrumentation; take down the computer, and you can still use the old analog instrumentation.
Finally, nuclear plants are designed so that the preferred failure mode when something goes wrong is "...and the reactor shuts itself down." Nuke plant operators are NOT stupid; they know they are dealing with the greatest concentration of power mankind has ever manipulated.
Computer sabotage MIGHT allow you to take a nuclear power plant off the grid. It would require multiple additional simultaneous failures (accidental or deliberate sabotage) to occur at the same time frame to generate an incident even as interesting as TMI (which had only a minimal radiation release; maximum off-plant individual dosage was under 1 millisievert; normal annual backround was 3).
Creating a Chernobyl type incident at a US (non-soviet) design power plant would require expert on-site sabotage in force, and probably the use of explosives to breach the concrete containment. You won't do it with just a script and a mouse click.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
Re:Nuke Safety
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on September 05, 2003 10:21 PMAlso, nuclear plants are designed with redundant independent parallel monitoring instrumentation; take down the computer, and you can still use the old analog instrumentation.
Finally, nuclear plants are designed so that the preferred failure mode when something goes wrong is "...and the reactor shuts itself down." Nuke plant operators are NOT stupid; they know they are dealing with the greatest concentration of power mankind has ever manipulated.
Computer sabotage MIGHT allow you to take a nuclear power plant off the grid. It would require multiple additional simultaneous failures (accidental or deliberate sabotage) to occur at the same time frame to generate an incident even as interesting as TMI (which had only a minimal radiation release; maximum off-plant individual dosage was under 1 millisievert; normal annual backround was 3).
Creating a Chernobyl type incident at a US (non-soviet) design power plant would require expert on-site sabotage in force, and probably the use of explosives to breach the concrete containment. You won't do it with just a script and a mouse click.
#