DHS quietly dispatching teams to test power plant cybersecurity

DHS is quietly creating specialized teams of experts to test industrial control systems at U.S power plants for cybersecurity weaknesses. An August 4 Associate Press report indicated DHS has so far created four teams to conduct such assessments, according to the director of control system security. The official told the news service that 10 teams are expected to be in the field next year as the program’s annual budget grows from $10 million to $15 million. A DHS spokeswoman confirmed the DHS plan. She said the special teams are part of an Industrial Control Systems Computer Emergency Response Team (ICS CERT) that DHS has been building over the past year in response to worldwide cybersecurity threats against industry control systems (ICS). The teams are being set up to help companies in critical infrastructure industries respond to and mitigate cyber incidents affecting ICS, she said. Each DHS team is said to be equipped with forensic tools, cables, converters and data-storage equipment to be used to probe for and fix security vulnerabilities in control systems. According to the report, the specialized DHS teams conducted 50 security assessments at power plants in the past year. In addition, teams were dispatched 13 times to investigate cyber incidents - nine were found to be cyber intrusions and four were caused by operator error.

Details Here

first published week of:   08/09/2010

Diablo Canyon and PG&E deal with water-cooling mandate

On May 4, the California Water Resources Control Board adopted a new policy that declared these once-through cooling systems used at Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County, and 18 other coastal power plants in California to be antiquated. The board gave the utilities that own those plants deadlines for installing less environmentally damaging cooling systems. White foam churns on the surface of the water in the outfall cove at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Once-through cooling damages the environment because it kills adult and larval fish. The flood of warmer discharge water also alters the marine ecosystem around the plant. In the case of Diablo Canyon, owners Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) have until the last day of 2024 to comply with the new policy. That date was intentionally set to coincide with the planned renewal of the plant’s two operating licenses currently under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, that’s where the clarity ends. It won’t be known for another three years what type of alternative technology PG&E will be required to implement at Diablo Canyon. PG&E is not saying what technology it will recommend. “At this stage, there is much more study that needs to be done,” said a PG&E spokeswoman. A range of cooling options is available. These include replacing once-through cooling with a closed-loop system that uses much less water, modifying the once-through cooling system so it is less damaging, or some combination of the two. A third-party technical team with nuclear industry experience will be named to study these options. In three years, the team will recommend to the water board what technology best suits the plant.

Details Here

first published week of:   05/17/2010

DOE lacks master plan for Yucca Mountain shutdown: IG report

The U.S. Department of Energy has not developed a master plan to coordinate the shutdown of a project to build a geological repository for spent fuel and nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a report released July 23. Dated July 21, the study noted that department management had requested in March that OIG defer its audit of plans by the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) to shut down the project until a “master plan” for the shutdown could be developed. OIG met with OCRWM officials again in June, when they were told that “the plan was not complete and that events were moving so quickly that no further action on the master plan was contemplated.” As a result, “we have decided not to restart our audit,” the Inspector General said. “To help compensate for the lack of a master plan,” OCRWM officials told OIG they had established “focus groups to manage shutdown activities,” the Inspector General said. “Taken together, these efforts were significant; although they did not, in our opinion, substitute for a master plan,” he said. OIG provided in its report several “lessons learned” from terminations of other DOE projects. Attention and oversight should particularly focus on disposition of personal property; maintaining intellectual, scientific and technology property; and prime contractor and subcontractor management issues, the Inspector General said.

Details Here

first published week of:   08/02/2010

DOE Selects EPRI Collaborative to Lead Cyber Security Project
Initiative Aims to Secure Electric Sector From Cyber Attacks

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) said on September 27 that the U.S. Department of Energy has selected its cyber security collaborative to assess and develop technologies, best practices, metrics and standards to protect the U.S. electric sector against cyber attacks. The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the collaborative will negotiate a funding level for the public-private research initiative.

The EPRI-led collaborative comprises national research and commercial research laboratories, universities, and subject mater experts in key areas of cyber security (see list of participants at the end of this press release). The participants bring diverse experience in technology, business, standards and policy. It was among 10 cyber security initiatives representing an investment of more than $30 million that was announced last week in Washington by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Among the collaboratives tasks are: assessing requirements and results developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and other organizations; reviewing power system and cyber security standards in meeting power system security requirements; and, testing grid security technologies protocols using laboratories and pilot projects.

Details Here

first published week of:   09/27/2010

Dominion plans to mothball Virginia power plant

Dominion Virginia Power is planning to mothball its small Altavista, Virginia coal-fired power plant by the end of summer and lay off 23 workers at the facility. Dominion said the 63-megawatt plant in Campbell County is not cost-competitive with the company’s natural gas plants. Officials said lower natural gas prices have priced the plant’s electric production out of the wholesale electricity market. The plant isn’t closing permanently, but will no longer be used for daily generation. The company could not say how long the power station might remain offline. Before it can shut down the plant, Dominion needs approval from PJM Interconnection, which ensures regional power reliability

Details Here

first published week of:   06/07/2010

Dominion replacing gas lines for $2.5B

Dominion East Ohio is in the midst of a 25-year, $2.5 billion program to replace about 4,000 miles of the 21,000 miles of natural gas lines in its system in Ohio and West Virginia, making them more resistant to corrosion. Locally, the targeted lines are smaller distribution lines, not the larger transmission pipelines like the one that exploded Sept. 9 in San Bruno, California. Dominion has 10 transmission lines in Washington County, said a senior communications specialist with the company. He described these pipelines as analogous to large, high-tension towers in the electrical distribution system. There is usually hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch in the larger transmission pipelines, the specialist said. The smaller distribution lines have pressure ranging from just ounces per square inch, like the gas mains running under a street, to 60 to 80 pounds, he said. Dominion is replacing the current lines because they are made of bare steel, iron or copper, and thus more likely to corrode. The new lines are made of plastic or metal that has been treated to resist corrosion

Details Here

first published week of:   10/11/2010

Volume 31

-->