Advanced reactor developers preparing for U.S. military installations now have a new cybersecurity team built around the unusual demands of those projects.
OSC Global and InfraShield have launched Janus Cyber, an initiative focused on securing reactors through design, regulatory authorization and eventual operation. The challenge goes beyond protecting a reactor from conventional cyber threats.
Developers must also satisfy nuclear cybersecurity rules, Department of War authorization requirements and protections for operational technology and industrial control systems. Those demands can affect reactor architecture before a project ever reaches a military site. Janus Cyber is designed to bring the different requirements into the engineering process early.
Three cybersecurity worlds collide
Nuclear facilities already operate under stringent cybersecurity expectations. A reactor destined for a U.S. military installation adds another layer of authorization and security requirements.
Industrial control systems create a third concern. These systems connect digital controls with physical equipment, making cyber weaknesses potentially relevant to plant operations.
John Roach, president of OSC Technical Solutions at OSC Global, said developers are working against aggressive schedules. He said coordinating separate cybersecurity teams could add unnecessary complexity.
Janus Cyber instead combines expertise across the three areas. That structure gives reactor developers a single team to address requirements that can otherwise develop along separate tracks.
The timing could matter as advanced reactor designs continue to change. Security decisions made too rigidly can become difficult to accommodate when engineers modify systems later.
Mark Rorabaugh, president and CEO of InfraShield, pointed to the U.S. Army’s growing emphasis on iterative development. “Cybersecurity needs to be just as agile,” Rorabaugh said.
His point goes beyond software updates. A reactor’s security architecture may need to evolve as engineers refine the physical plant, control systems and supporting infrastructure.
Security follows the reactor
Janus Cyber will work across the reactor development cycle instead of concentrating only on final authorization. Its work includes regulatory pathway development, cyber architecture and engineering, operational readiness and authorization planning. The initiative also addresses supply-chain security as equipment moves from factories toward operational facilities.
Offensive cybersecurity testing forms another part of the approach. Testing can expose weaknesses before systems become embedded within a military reactor’s operating environment.
InfraShield will handle nuclear cybersecurity regulatory strategy and bring several proprietary technologies to the initiative. Those include vTraq, PEEPS, UniPath and NullCloud.ai.
OSC Global will contribute cyber engineering and operational capabilities. OSC Technical Solutions and OSC Edge will serve as key contributors. The partners will also share governance, risk and compliance responsibilities depending on the needs of individual projects.
Designing for change
The underlying engineering problem is straightforward. A cybersecurity architecture that only works for one version of a reactor can become a liability as development progresses.
Janus Cyber wants security requirements to move with those design changes. That approach could reduce the need for expensive modifications when a reactor moves from concept work toward authorization and deployment. The initiative is available now to advanced reactor developers pursuing projects at U.S. military installations.
Its initial focus will include early-stage cybersecurity architecture and authorization planning, when developers still have significant flexibility over system design. That puts cybersecurity closer to the reactor’s engineering core, where decisions about digital controls, physical systems, and operational procedures begin to take shape.
