RiskWatch to release nuclear safety software in October

Published 21 September 2006

System will permit automatic risk assessment of infrastructure problems and outside threats; software created with DoD and DoE financing

Recent failures of the emergency warning systems at the Indian Point nuclear reactor in New York — to say nothing of the Three Miles Island accident of three decades ago — have brought the safety of America’s most controversial energy source to the fore. Unlike coal-fired electricity plants, nuclear plants can cause extreme damage both from malfunction and from determined attack from the outside — one reason why activists in the area, including Pete Seeger and John Hall, now Democratic nominee for congress in the 19th district, have violently opposed it from the outset. It is doubtful that new risk management software to be released this year by RiskWatch will ease their concerns, but those in the industry, at least, will be thankful.

Annapolis, Maryland-based RiskWatch’s software, available in October, was developed under contract with the Technical Support Working Group of the Department of Defense, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Nuclear Energy Institute. It is designed to help plant operators perform automatic risk assessments, both of internal personnel and equipment failures, and of outside threats like hurricanes and terrorism. The software was designed to take into acount the new Nuclear Energy Institute guidelines contained in the NEI 04-04 Revision 1; “Cyber Security Program for Nuclear Power Reactors”.

-read more in this Baltimore Business Journal report