A graded approach to cyber security in a research reactor facility

Recently, several accidents caused by cyber attacks on digital systems have been reported in the nuclear industry. To cope with such threats, regulatory agency and standardization organization have published several guidelines for nuclear power plants. However it is difficult to apply the requirements to research reactor facilities directly because the characteristics in terms of facility scale, purpose, and system design, are different from those of power plants. This paper suggests a graded approach to cyber security in a research reactor facility. It introduces cyber security activities for guarding digital systems of a reactor facility safely as a cyber security program based on the practices at a research reactor facility. ► We introduced the cyber security application issues and problems related to a research reactor. ► A graded approach for cyber security at a research reactor facility was proposed. ► The approach was explained briefly using an application practice.