Revisiting Nuclear Security Culture with Respect to the Contemporary Existential Threat

It is widely recognized within the nuclear security and safety industry that the paradigm for establishing and maintaining security programs for defending nuclear installations has changed significantly with the ascendence of cyberthreats and drone technology. While the past challenges presented by force-on-force defense and 2-D attack scenarios still exist, the impact severity and likelihood of success (and therefore the overall risk) of the more contemporary dangers have dominated modern threat and vulnerability evaluations and the correlated nuclear security measures required for defense. This change in consideration of base defense criteria dictates that the implementation of nuclear security be reassessed at the highest level to ensure that a comprehensive program is established. The highest level of implementation for such program begins with revisiting the existing nuclear security culture. Rather than dwell on technological defense details (which currently are changing as rapidly as the technological threats), this paper provides a proposal for assessing the overarching philosophy of how to approach and plan a security/defense program for a 3-D threat, including augmenting the security culture and raising the awareness of the need for multi-dimensional planning. This involves revisiting the traditional nuclear security culture, evaluating the threat basis/timeline and vulnerabilities, and plotting out defensive considerations that are instilled within a cultural environment. This paper provides a suggested approach to evaluating example elements of a typical nuclear security culture program by (1) discussing the threat and vulnerability profile for contemporary nuclear security concerns compared to traditional threat/risk considerations; (2) evaluating the basic concepts of nuclear security culture implementation using selected elements of the International Atomic Energy Agency publication IAEA Nuclear Security Series No. 7, “Nuclear Security Culture” (NSS-7) as examples, and; (3) promoting an initiative for revisiting the nuclear security culture programs for nuclear installations based on the specific elements of security threat posed by the preceding discussion. The conclusion of this paper supports the postulate that meaningful nuclear security preparations for the contemporary existential threat must begin with a properly focused nuclear security culture.