Tamil Nadu: Nuclear plants equipped to tackle cyber threats, fish intrusion

MOSCOW: Modern nuclear power generation plants are equipped with adequate safeguards to protect against cyber attacks and intrusion of marine species into coolant intake systems, authorities of Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

Responding to a question raised by TNIE during a visit to the plant located in Tver Oblast 200 km away from Moscow, in the wake of a recent incident of jellyfish entering coolant intake pipes of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) and an alleged cyber attack, officials said all modern day plants have special mechanism in place to prevent fish from entering the system and disrupting operations.

Referring to their track record, authorities stated that the Kalinin plant had not faced any cyber threats and has been ranked as one of Russia’s one best performing nuclear power plants for the 11th year.

“We are strengthening measures to protect our NPP and adjust the automated control system accordingly case by case. We have not faced any real cyber threats so far,” they said.  “Our electronic system identifies fish (intrusion) and prevents their entry,” they added.

Chief Engineer Ruslan Alyev, Deputy Director for Human Resources Oleg Lebedev and Deputy Chief Engineer for Safety and Reliability Evgeny Soloviev were among those who interacted with the media.

During the visit, the journalists were taken to Rosatom’s 4th International Fishing Tournament, conducted in Udomlya lake where the water for the NPP’s cooling system is taken and discharged. The catch was submitted for dosimetric monitoring of the fish using specialised equipment.

Victor Duleichik, Head of the Radiation Safety Department, told TNIE that the radiation dose rate reading recorded during the monitoring was around 0.07 microsieverts per hour, which, he said, is lower than the typical readings. Malaysian, Hungarian and Russian teams won in different categories. The Indian fishing team included Ziegen Joseph and Chandrasekar Ravi, both from Tamil Nadu.

Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom organised the visit to the Kalinin NPP and a fishing tournament, in which 28 journalists and 22 amateur anglers from 12 countries participated. The major events took place on September 28 and 29.

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