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2011 Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC) Annual Report

Partnership

The Nuclear Sector includes the Nation's 65 commercial nuclear power plants, which provide approximately 20 percent of the electricity used in the United States. The sector also includes non-power reactors used for research, training, and radioisotope production; nuclear fuel-cycle facilities; nuclear and radioactive materials used in medical, industrial, and academic settings; and the transportation, storage, and disposal of nuclear materials and radioactive waste. The Nuclear Sector Coordinating Council (NSCC) and Nuclear Government Coordinating Council (NGCC) administer three sub-councils, in addition to special working groups, to address protection and resilience efforts specific to non-power reactors, radioisotopes, and cyber security. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Protection and Programs Directorate's Office of infrastructure Protection serves as the Sector-Specific Agency for the Nuclear Sector.

Vision

The Nuclear Sector will support national security, public health and safety, public confidence, and economic stability by enhancing, where necessary and reasonably achievable, its existing high level of readiness to promote the protection and resilience of the Nuclear Sector in an all-hazards environment and to lead by example to improve the Nation's overall critical infrastructure readiness.

Goals

To ensure the safety, protection, and resilience of the Nuclear Sector, partners work together to achieve the following goals: • Establish permanent and robust collaboration and communication among sector partners that have security and emergency responsibilities for the Nuclear Sector.

• Obtain cross-sector dependency- and interdependency-related information and share this information with sector partners.

• Increase public awareness of sector protective measures, consequences, and proper actions following the release of radioactive material.

• Improve security, tracking, and detection of nuclear and radioactive material in order to prevent it from being used for malevolent purposes.

• Coordinate with sector partners to develop measures and procedures to prevent, protect, respond to, and recover from all-hazard disasters impacting Nuclear Sector assets.

• Protect against the exploitation of the Nuclear Sector's cyber assets, systems, and networks, and the functions they support.

• Use a risk-informed approach that includes protection and resilience considerations to make budgeting, funding, and grant decisions on potential protection and emergency response enhancements.

Selected Accomplishments

Sector partners continue to maintain and enhance the safety, security, and resilience of the Nuclear Sector. Accomplishments over the last year include the following:

• Continued planning for additional Integrated Comprehensive Exercises following the 2010-2011 Integrated Pilot Comprehensive Exercises at Donald C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant and Indian Point Energy Center. • Installed voluntary security enhancements by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at seven non-power reactors in Fiscal Year 2010 (FY 2010).

• Completed the objectives and deliverables under the Nuclear Government and Sector Coordinating Councils-Joint Radioisotopes

Sub council Focus Groups on the transportation of radioactive material, tracking of sealed sources, and removal and disposition of disused sources.

• Developed and submitted to Congress the 2010 Radiation Source Protection and Security Task Force Report on the security of radioactive sealed sources.

• Recovered more than 27,800 disused radioactive sources (more than 800,000 curie) since 1997, including 3,158 sources in FY 2010.

• Implemented security enhancements at 256 U.S. buildings with high priority radiological materials through the NNSA as of April25, 2011.

• Installed in-device delay kits to impede the unauthorized removal of high-risk, cesium-chloride radioactive sealed sources from medical and industrial irradiators-to date, a total of 245 irradiators have received a retrofit kit; NNSA has been working with 60-80 volunteers per calendar year to implement the enhancements; and the three largest irradiator manufacturers have agreed to include the delay kits on newly produced units.

• Implemented the National Source Tracking System, which provides administrative accountability for more than 75,000 high-risk Radioactive sources.

“The Nuclear Sector remains among the most secure of the 18 Critical Infrastructure Sectors and

Nuclear Sector partners seek to maintain and improve the sector's security posture in light of a

changing risk landscape."

Source: 2011 Nuclear Sector Annual Report

Key Initiatives

The Nuclear Sector partners are implementing numerous protective programs and initiatives to help sustain the robust security posture of

sector assets while addressing emerging risks. Key initiatives within the sector include:

• Implementing additional voluntary security enhancements, such as the Research and Test Reactors Voluntary Security Enhancement Project, Radiological Site Voluntary Security Enhancement Project, and Cesium Chloride Irradiator In-Device Delay Program.

• Conducting Integrated Pilot Comprehensive Exercises and biennial emergency preparedness exercises.

• Enhancing the knowledge of first responders at facilities with nuclear or radioactive materials through the Alarm Responder Training

Program and tabletop exercises.

• Conducting baseline and force-on-force security inspections to assess nuclear plants' ability to defend against the Nuclear Regulatory

Commission's Design Basis Threat.

• Assessing the adequacy of State, local and tribal government emergency plans through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program.

• Conducting Federal Bureau of Investigation outreach visits to select facilities housing risk-significant radioactive materials and special

nuclear material.

• Recovering; exchanging; recycling; and disposing of excess, unwanted, abandoned, or orphaned radioactive sealed sources.

Path Forward

The Nuclear Sector still faces some critical infrastructure protection and resilience challenges, such as enhancing integrated response capabilities, ensuring the security of cyber-based systems, ensuring safe and secure storage or disposal for commercial sealed sources, and increasing the resilience of the radioisotopes supply chain. The sector will take the following steps to address these challenges:

• Continue to work collaboratively with sector stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and pursue mission-essential research and

development needs.

• Continue to coordinate with State and local authorities as well as the private sector, as appropriate, to promote adequate, consistent, and

integrated response preparedness and coordination across the sector.

• Continue to identify cyber security risks that could potentially affect the Nuclear Sector and determine mitigation strategies through

development of the Road map for Enhancing Cyber Systems Security in the Nuclear Sector, modeling roadmaps created for the Chemical, Energy, and Water Sectors.

"All 65 of the Nation's commercial nuclear power plants submitted their cyber security plans,

including a proposed implementation schedule by the November 23, 2009 deadline. During 2010,

[the Nuclear Regulatory Commission] worked with these licensees, as well as [the Nuclear Energy

Institute]. To address more than 70 requests for additional information in the process of approving

the plans and schedules."

Source: 2011 Nuclear Sector Annual Report

• Remain cognizant of efforts taken pursuant to recommendations of the Removal and Disposition of the Disused Sources Focus Group

relating to potential national security concerns presented by the lack of commercial disposal options for sealed sources.

• Support radioisotopes supply-chain resilience by participating in interagency efforts to enhance supplies of key radioisotopes, such as

Molybdenum-99.

• Recover; exchange; recycle; and dispose of excess, unwanted, abandoned, or orphaned radioactive sealed sources

Areva Scrambles To Hire Workers As Demand For Nuclear Power Takes Off

According to a report in The Times Online, Inside a cavernous factory in the French steel town of Chalon-sur-Saône, technicians are welding a giant drum that will one day form the heart of a Chinese nuclear reactor. Once finished, the 500-tonne steam-generating unit being built by Areva, the French nuclear energy group, will be loaded on to a barge and floated down the river to Marseilles for export.

A resurgence of global interest in nuclear power is driving a boom in orders from this area, the hub of the French nuclear industry. To cope with demand, Areva is hiring up to 1,000 people per month to prepare for a surge in orders from all over the world.

Luc Oursel, chief executive of Areva Nuclear Plants, the core nuclear reactor manufacturing division, contends: “We are convinced about the nuclear renaissance.”

Despite the recession, Areva, which is 91 per cent-owned by the French State, has more than doubled in size in three years as France seeks to cement its position as a supplier of nuclear equipment and capitalise on a renewed focus of nuclear technology as countries try to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

Over the next ten years, the world is expected to build 180 nuclear power plants, up from only 39 since 1999, and Areva, the world's largest builder of reactors, has ambitions to build one third of them.

Areva intends to recruit 10,000-12,000 staff globally this year and a similar number in 2010. “Financial crisis or not, this action plan is going ahead,” Mr Oursel adds. “We see more and more countries coming to us.”

The bulk of the new workers will join Areva’s workforce of 75,000 in France, China, the Middle East, and the United States.

The build-up represents an evolution in the fortunes of the French nuclear industry. Eight years ago, Areva’s Saint-Marcel factory in Chalon faced closure, sustained only by a trickle of orders for replacement parts for France’s domestic fleet of 58 reactors, which generate 80 percent of France’s electricity. Currently, Areva has 23 provisional orders for reactors.

Hervé Hottelart, the plant’s director, said that the Chalon workforce had swelled from 500 in 2004 to 1,140 now. Areva plans to grow it further to 1,300. “We used to be just a supplier to the French nuclear industry, but now we are exporting globally,” he remarked, adding that the plant was producing components for reactors in Finland, China and France.

The heavy equipment for four reactors that EDF planned to build in Britain at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, and Sizewell, in Suffolk, would be built at Saint-Marcel, he added.

Yet Areva’s rapid expansion plans will not be inexpensive. Mr Oursel said that Areva planned to invest €2.3 billion (£2.2 billion) this year on factories, uranium mines, fuel-processing plants and research and development, a figure that would increase to €2.6 billion for each of the following three years.

Posted to Nuclear Power Industry News by steveheiser on 09-29-2009

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