By McKenzie Romero | Editor
If you approach a large, traditional nuclear reactor, you will see traditional security measures — “guns, gates and guards,” as J’Tia Hart, Idaho National Lab nuclear nonproliferation director, puts it.
But with the small modular reactors that are now in the works, including in Utah, the threats are likely to come from a different source, leaving research labs looking for ways to protect the reactors from unseen cyber incursions.
In today’s Dispatch we brief you on the nuclear cybersecurity conversation that came to Utah, the artist documenting the Great Salt Lake’s plight daily, and Washington, D.C.’s Freedom 250 IndyCar race.
“We want to build it in such a way that if somebody does attack them, the physics involved actually prevent something bad from happening.” — Mason Rice, director of the Cyber Resilience and Intelligence Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on the need to design nuclear reactors in a way that limit the impact of potential cyber attacks.
The Idaho National Laboratory is working on ways nuclear reactors, which are becoming smaller, can be shielded from cyberattacks. (Illustration by Alex Cochran for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
The Idaho National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear research institution, hosted a nuclear cybersecurity summit in Park City looking to spur developers to start incorporating security frameworks into their reactors’ designs.
The researchers aren’t expecting the effort to take cybersecurity risks down to zero, but to create a methodology that aims to cause as little disruption as possible. For the moment, experts are looking at threats other industrial control systems face.
Artist Erik Linton does onsite paintings to show the Great Salt Lake’s varying landscapes. (Georgia Metcalf)
GREAT SALT LAKE COLLABORATIVE
By Georgia Metcalf
Erik Linton began painting landscapes over a decade ago, illustrating the red rocks of Southern Utah before inspiration struck for what he describes as his most ambitious project to date: painting the Great Salt Lake every day for a year.
By painting the lake in its current state — with 56% of the lakebed exposed and water levels sitting at 31.4% — 42-year-old Cache Valley artist said he hopes his series of paintings will visually preserve it for future generations.
IndyCar rear-end mechanic Justin Moore, 24, of Statesboro, Georgia, assembles a carbon fiber sidepod on a Team Penske race car. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
DC BUREAU
By Ashley Murray
IndyCar took over the streets of the nation’s capital for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the last in a series of events coordinated and promoted by President Donald Trump to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Thousands gathered along the course fencing with close-up views. Scott and Jackie Cunningham paid for a VIP Champions package and traveled to Washington, D.C., from Salt Lake City for the experience that Jackie called “phenomenal.”
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