MECHANISMS TO STRENGTHEN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S HUMAN RELIABILITY PROGRAM BY ADOPTING A CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (CAP)

The Department of Energy’s Human Reliability Program (HRP) is a robust safety and security program designed to mitigate issues with the access/handing of Category 1 Special Nuclear Material and mitigating the insider threat. Various components of HRP, as defined by 10 CFR 712, are used to evaluate a person’s physical and mental stability to carry out his/her duties without jeopardizing safety and security within a high consequence environment. Studies have shown, after a discovery of an insider, that detailed assessments of aberrant behavior can be derived. Often, assessments conducted by federal agencies are retrospective; occurring after the crime has been committed. These extensive character profiles of an individual could, if available earlier, provide indicators of abnormal behavior and possibly mitigate the threat. Current programs like HRP and safety programs encourage continuous employee assessments. Observable individual behaviors occur continuously, thus a program could be established to flag subtle behaviors in the workforce from subordinates, peers, and supervision. A mechanism such as a CAP is proposed to collect the data and provide a means to assess the information as a proactive means to detect the insider threat.