Cyber Attackers Have Successfully Hit A Nuclear Power Plant And A Lab (reuters.com)

Slashdot reader zootsewt1 quotes a rundown by Security Taco of two unrelated breaches at nuclear-related facilities that were recently disclosed -- one "disruptive" and the other involving the remote theft of documents: Director Yukiya Amano from the IAEA disclosed that a nuclear power generation facility came under cyber attack within the last few years. He declined to state which specific nuclear facility was involved. Mr. Amano advised that "This issue of cyber attacks on nuclear-related facilities or activities should be taken very seriously. We never know if we know everything or if it's the tip of the iceberg."

In a separate incident, a nuclear lab in the University of Toyama in Japan conducting research on tritium (used in nuclear power plants), also came under cyber attack earlier this year. The attacker appears to have been able to exfiltrate large large amounts of data, some of which was related to the Fukushima clean-up.
The Reuters article lists other data breaches and malware infections at nuclear sites over the years, and notes that the IAEA director "also cited a case in which an individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called 'dirty bomb'." At the isotope research center at the University of Toyama, the attacker reportedly compressed more than 1,000 files to make them easier to transmit.

Comments

Confused report

[Mr D from 63]

The Reuters article lists other data breaches and malware infections at nuclear sites over the years, and notes that the IAEA director "also cited a case in which an individual tried to smuggle a small amount of highly enriched uranium about four years ago that could have been used to build a so-called 'dirty bomb'." At the isotope research center at the University of Toyama, the attacker reportedly compressed more than 1,000 files to make them easier to transmit.

This paragraph conflates separate, unrelated incidences, one of which has nothing at all to do with cyber attack. Why?

Re:Confused report

[queazocotal]

Also, enriched uranium is a _TERRIBLE_ isotope for a dirty bomb.
Enriched uranium is more radioactive than natural uranium - but only in a ridiculously small amount, because instead of half decaying in 4 billion years, half decays in 700 million years.

Alexander_Litvinenko was poisoned by around 10 micrograms of Polonium-210.
In rough numbers, polonium-210 is two billion times more active than uranium-235.
To have the same dose equivalent of uranium, you'd need a 20 kilogram lump of uranium-235.
There is no real way to get any radioactive danger from uranium-235 unless you make it into a bomb, at any dose the chemical effects (broadly similar to lead) would vastly overwhelm the radioactive.

Re:A tritiumn lab?

[mbkennel]

Because substantial amounts of tritium are essential for "boosted" fission nuclear weapons. Tritium (and deuterium, which is cheap and easy to procure) adds fusion to the core of a fission warhead. It's not significant in energy production directly (unlike a true H-bomb) but it substantially increases the efficiency and potency of the fission reaction by adding a boost of neutrons at the moment of maximum compression.

It is considered essential to producing warheads which are small enough for militarily capable missiles.

Hackers were hence probably DPRK.

Re:But what part of the plant.

[Joe_Dragon]

The t-437 safety command console.

Re:But what part of the plant.

[Waffle Iron]

It was the reactor core.

Some salesmen convinced management to install the new "AtomikRodz" smart controllers into the reactors. They monitor power demand levels, and over time they learn to automatically adjust power output in advance, cutting down on personnel costs. Even better, the associated app allows operators to manually adjust the control rods with their phones from anywhere in the world. No need to run down to the station just to fiddle with power output.

Unfortunately, as with most IoT gear, this product was riddled with security holes.

Re:A tritiumn lab?

[Mr D from 63]

Nice cut and paste from wiki. But a cyber attack on a tritium lab doesn't get materials into the hands of anyone.

The Fukushima clean-up?

[drinkypoo]

Let's hope they release that stuff publicly ASAP. I want to know what Tepco has been lying about lately.

Re:The Fukushima clean-up?

[MrKaos]

Let's hope they release that stuff publicly ASAP. I want to know what Tepco has been lying about lately.

That the ground around unit four spent fuel pool has subsided 30 inches since the accident with 400 or so spent fuel rods still in there.

Allegations are that unit 4 was being upgraded when the quake struck and that fuel was being stored illegally in the spent fuel pool at the time of the quake. Money that should have been spent on seawall and generator upgrades.

Japanese civil engineers have said they're at a loss to explain the damage to the concrete supports for the spent fuel pool in unit four as the quake did not have enough ground acceleration to damage them.

Accounts are emerging that when part of the crane fell in the pool, some of the illegal fuel rods struck one another causing a neutron pulse and it is that which damaged the concrete supports.

Meanwhile The fall guy president admits there is a cover up of a meltdown to cover-up the illegal activity that was happening in unit four in the first place. Look at that silly monkey!

We have this brain dead blanket on all news and information about Fukushima there is little chance we are going to get much real information while they continue to let that pig of a plant belch radioisotopes into the pacific ocean. I wish they would at least close in the sea walls around the plant to at least *try* to stop or filter the ground water that reaches the ocean. Plutonium Chloride is very soluble.

Here is my ---> theory about what is going on in Japan: The shutdown of their reactor fleet has nothing to do with protestors or anything other that what is happening in Unit 4 spent fuel pool. I suspect that the government now knows just how badly Tepco fucked up, but they're in a bind. If they let Tepco hang, everyone will know why and they won't be able to control the situation.

The situation at Unit 4 is so dire they have been toiling day and night since the accident to remove all the fuel rods from the damaged pool. It has stopped because they need to do maintenance on the crane. The count is down from 1100 spent rods, to 400 rods so far, which is awesome work, but remains a threat. I reason it is because of the following potential scenarios:

Best Case: All the fuel rods are removed and Fukushima is no worse than it already is, an INES level 7 accident whose radioactive steam effluents will continue to blow via the jet stream over the US.

Worse Case: There is some failure which initiates a plutonium file in the remaining rods with hundreds of millions of curies blowing over the continental US mainland and into the pacific ocean.

Worst Case: *IF* the Japanese continued to operate their reactors, the worse case above initiates a much larger neutron pulse that initiates meltdowns in all of the nuclear plants on the japanese eastern seaboard, leaving most of the Japanese population unable to respond to the multiple meltdowns. I know, it seems far fetched, but it seems more reasonable that the Japanese government would respond to pressure from that scenario to shut down the economic benefit they get from nuclear power, as opposed to pressure from any hippy hick NIMBY anty-nukker protestor.

Excuse me dp, I have to address the fanboi reading, yes you fanboi, re-read the worst case scenario again, notice the big *IF*, no read it again. Now before you respond, you don't know enough fact to make up a fictional scenario that elaborate, so it's either possible or you don't know what you are talking about enough to respond with anything other than an emotive diatribe. *IF*.

Apologies dp, it's just a theory though. We will know if the Japanese reactors are started up again *after* the last of the fuel rods are removed from unit 4.