"Cyber war" threatens nuclear facilities

Public Radio International's The World has reported that the U.S. military now recognizes "cyber war" as the "new fifth domain of war between states, after air, land, sea and outer space." It reported "the humanitarian consequences of a cyber attack could include damage to infrastructure like power grids and toxic waste facilities," which could, of course, include atomic reactors and high-level radioactive waste storage pools. Bennett Ramberg warned more than 25 years ago that reactors and radioactive waste could be targeted during war, in his book Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy: An Unrecognized Military Peril. The Stuxnet computer worm, targeted at the Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, is rumored to have been launched by the U.S. and/or Israeli militaries, although no radioactivity releases to the environment from the resulting damage were reported.

"America's critical infrastructure security response system is broken"

As reported by NetworkWorld, a "[p]ossible cyberattack on SCADA [supervisory control and data acquisition] system at small Illinois water plant highlights weakness in U.S. system of 'Fusion Centers'."

Atomic reactors and other nuclear facilities across the U.S., and in other countries, are very vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could release catastrophic amounts of hazardous radioactivity.