Emerging Security Threats for Power Stations

Protecting critical infrastructure, like nuclear facilities and other power plants, used to be a simple affair, typically involving guards, metal detectors, and a procedure for physical inspections of vehicles and cargo.

Times, however, have changed — as terror threats evolve, critical infrastructure protection, and specifically the checkpoint, must adapt. Biological and chemical weapons are a very real danger, especially for facilities like water treatment plants, while power plants are clear targets for cells seeking to black out national power grids. Nuclear facilities have even more challenges, as they must look for threats coming into the facility as well as dangerous materials leaving.

For nuclear power plant operators, enhanced security is nothing new — stringent guidelines set down by bodies including the European Commission and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) outline exactly how these operators must protect their facilities from threats, along with the radioactive and nuclear materials used for power generation.

While some of these regulations relate purely to the security of nuclear fuel, many of these practices can and should be adopted by the wider power generation community; if legislative precedence is any indicator, there may not be a choice in the near future.

It’s obvious that critical infrastructure facilities need to revamp security measures — but to meet all potential threats requires a disparate mix of security and checkpoint technologies. So how can an infrastructure operator not only determine what solutions they need, but also how they can make all of these different pieces work together?

As threats continue to mount against critical infrastructure in Europe and across the globe, it is up to operators themselves to proactively enhance their security capabilities.

Enabling safe and efficient business, not hampering it

While all power plant operators maintain some level of security, the scale and nature of the threats that they are facing are rapidly changing. A guard booth, chain link fence and a video surveillance system might have been enough 15 years ago, but now the dynamic has evolved, and so too must how operators approach security, regardless of the type of plant that they operate.

Luckily, security technology, especially in the area of threat detection, is at the very least keeping pace with emerging threats, particularly those delivered via cargo, vehicles, or personnel. In a world where recipes for chemical-based explosives are easily found online, relying purely on metal detectors and visual inspections for security screening can be disastrous.

As such, plant operators need to add advanced screening technologies to their existing checkpoint footprints, ensuring that these threats can be detected regardless of the form that they take.

But facility managers can’t simply keep adding more gadgets and technology. An effective business plan takes into consideration the businesses need to move people, cargo deliveries, and products quickly.

A particular power generation facility may need to address pallets of cargo one day but heavy vehicle traffic the next. A modular security screening technology can help with this, as it can switch from configuration to configuration easily. It used to be that power facilities would have to buy technology, hire security consultants, and rely on third-party integrators to acquire a meaningful and efficient security program. Security technology is now more seamless, modular, and easy to integrate and tailor to each location’s specific needs.

Security-screening-as-a-service

Perhaps the best way, however, to effectively secure a power generation facility is for operators to not even do it; instead, they should turn to an expert. This is not to say that plant operators are incapable of effective security, but security is not their primary goal — keeping the lights on (literally) is.

One emerging trend in the security world is that of security-screening-as-a-service, essentially a form of outsourcing where a security solutions provider manages all aspects of a security operation, from hiring and equipment buys to integration and maintenance. This removes the burden on the plant operator, freeing them to focus on energy generation without sacrificing plant security. Ultimately, it’s up to the operator to feel comfortable with this approach, but it is completely modular — if, for example, the operator would prefer to keep security personnel under their umbrella, a security-as-a-service vendor should be able to work around this.

Power generation facilities are no longer the “second tier” when it comes to security threats; the hardening of public buildings and high-profile events means that more and more terrorist actors are now looking at critical infrastructure as targets. Plant operators need to proactively re-examine their security operations and their current needs, and enhance their programs not just to meet the threats of today, but to also counteract the threats of the future.