Constructing a Foundation for Nuclear Security Culture: A Pathway for Nuclear Newcomers

Pursuing nuclear energy for the first time is a monumental challenge. Financing construction, establishing a competent regulatory authority, and developing the internal operator expertise necessary to license and run the plant involve long and complex processes. Operators are also required to design and build the facility to protect against the Design Basis Threat (DBT) which is the maximum reasonable set of threats against which a nuclear operator can be expected to defend. Nuclear security involves balancing risk and cost, with the understanding that achieving a “zero” level of risk is impossible. The current DBT concept for nuclear power facilities primarily focus on physical security, and the costs to support this can be staggering. This can be especially difficult to implement in some new-build countries with limited financial resources. However, physical protection is just one component of a comprehensive security regime.Cultivating a strong security culture is equally paramount, and is arguably more cost-effective since it involves communicating values and beliefs instead of investing in hardware and other equipment. For nuclear newcomers such as the United Arab Emirates, one of the challenges in developing a security culture is bringing employees and contractors from a variety of cultural backgrounds and organizations under one cohesive understanding of threats and the appropriate security mindset as they develop their expertise. This diverse workforce, while advantageous in the long-term, can be difficult to formulate in the nascent stages of nuclear power operation. The Stimson Center proposes a Nuclear Security Governance Template as a resource to help nuclear operators illustrate how security considerations are decided, implemented, and internalized by the entire organization. The draft is a living document, as Stimson, alongside partners like WINS and the Canadian Nuclear Association, are in the process of seeking industry input from established nuclear facilities, as well as nuclear newcomer countries. The findings and recommendations in this paper consider ways in which a Nuclear Security Governance Template can serve as an entry point for senior-level managers in newcomer countries to examine how technical, cultural and human capacity considerations feed into the development of an organization’s security culture.