Proposed Operation Levels for Remotely Operated Nuclear Reactors Based on Physical and Cybersecurity Considerations

Small-scale advanced reactors can provide significant
cost savings for remote and limited-infrastructure locations.
Envisioned applications include remote mining sites, remote
communities, or remote oil and gas industries, where
traditional power generation, reliant on fossil fuels, and the
logistics of supply incur significant costs to energy
production. However, traditional reactor operations and
maintenance strategies may be cost prohibitive to a remotely
deployed reactor due to logistical complexity and costs to
station highly trained individuals in these remote locations.
Thus, the economics associated with traditional onsitestaffing strategies are simply too costly to support advanced
reactors sited in remote and infrastructure-limited locations.
Remote operations are proposed as a potential solution to
achieve a viable business case in which strategic site selection
for remote-operations facilities can be done based on
construction costs and workforce availability while the
reactor itself can be deployed where thermal and electric
energy are required. For the context of this report, remote
operations are defined as the ability to monitor, manage, or
control reactor-facility functions from outside the reactorfacility boundary.
In summary, while remote-operation applications exist
in other industries, they have not been extensively pursued in
the nuclear industry. Maturing advanced-reactor designs and
their near-term deployment require the development of safe
and cost-effective remote-operations strategies. Here we
provide an analysis of the key elements germane to remote
operations and evaluate those as they impact physical and
cybersecurity issues. This summary proposes a functionally
defined remote-operations hierarchy to classify physical- and
cybersecurity requirements based on the level of access to
reactor structures, systems, and components (SSCs), with the
intent to provide guidance for those considering remote
operations in their advanced-reactor deployment plans. The
development of this hierarchy and the classification of
physical- and cybersecurity issues associated with different
levels of remote-operation access are also detailed to provide
the operational context associated with the hierarchical
classifications.