Security

Nuclear installations such as nuclear reactors, radioactive waste storage facilities and repositories, and the transport of nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials must not only be safe with regard to technical faults, design basis accidents and severe accidents. They must also be protected against malicious acts. At GRS, we provide independent expertise alongside our own research and support the German federal and Länder governments in further developing the security of nuclear installations and transports on a scientific basis.

Nuclear safety and nuclear security share a common objective: to protect people and the environment from the risks of ionising radiation. Whilst nuclear safety focuses on preventing design basis accidents and severe accidents, nuclear security aims to prevent theft, sabotage, the misuse of nuclear materials and radioactive substances or other deliberate malicious acts or to limit their consequences. The two areas are closely intertwined. Safety and security measures often overlap and can influence one another. Consequently, the assessment of nuclear installations and transport operations requires a holistic understanding of both subject areas and their interfaces.

Our tasks: assessment and consultancy

The scenarios against which nuclear installations and transports must be protected include, in particular, conventional attacks, cyber attacks and hybrid attacks involving both physical and cyber attack elements. The specific measures required depend, amongst other things, on the installation or transport in question, the systems used there, the materials to be protected, and the underlying possible attack scenarios.

We support public authorities both in Germany and abroad in the assessment of security concepts, the evaluation of individual security measures, and the further development of requirements and assessment methods. In addition, we contribute to national and international regulatory frameworks and bring our expertise to bear in projects aimed at further developing security systems. To this end, we examine i.a. the effectiveness of individual protection measures and determine the potential radiological consequences of deliberate malicious acts.

Our research: advancing knowledge and methods

One of our particular strengths is the close link between our expert assessment work and our own research activities. Issues arising from licensing and supervisory procedures are directly incorporated into our research. This way, we ensure that our consultancy services and the tools we use in our expert assessments reflect the current state of the art in science and technology, which we are thereby constantly advancing.

For example, we develop specialised simulation codes to investigate severe mechanical stresses on security-relevant structures and components and validate these through experiments as part of international research collaborations. We continuously monitor events relating to relevant conventional and cyber attacks, newly disclosed vulnerabilities, and developments in attack tools and perpetrator tactics in order to assess the current threat level. Furthermore, we study new technical developments and potential impact scenarios and continue to refine methods for assessing their consequences and the effectiveness of protective and security measures.

Our experience and our know-how in the field of nuclear security can also be applied, in a graded approach, to the protection of critical infrastructure.