Design of a Rule-based Access Control System for a Vital Area in a Nuclear Facility

Attention is growing for the need to further protect vital areas within nuclear facilities. Vital areas containing nuclear materials or critical control systems are much more vulnerable to threats from personal within the facility rather the than from those outside simply because of their physical location. Preventing insiders from succeeding in carrying out acts of theft or sabotage requires continuous surveillance. KINAC has developed an access control technology that can be applied to vital areas, thus ensuring access to only authorized personnel. This access control technology is based on RFID location tracking technology, which allows for continuous surveillance of vital areas. Another goal that we have tried to achieve using this technology is to instantly detect an occurrence of unauthorized access automatically and warn security personnel. In order to determine if unauthorized access has taken place, well defined access rules are required (not only access permission to a certain area but also facility specific rules such as a two person rule). In this paper, we also propose a flexible way to define various kinds of access rules to vital areas in a nuclear facility. The proposed rules are based on SQL (Structured Query Language), the standard language for database management systems. This provides great flexibility for a security administrator to define any access rule that he or she needs in a facility. We verify our work by implementing a prototype based on a simplified nuclear facility model. In the prototype, we integrate the access control system with the entrance control and surveillance camera systems. Integration with those security systems is expected to enhance security functions at a nuclear facility. An entrance gate to a vital area controlled by an entrance control system is opened only when specific conditions for access are met. As well, security personnel will be able to respond to unauthorized access more efficiently with visual information provided by a surveillance camera system.