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DOE OSTI2025

CIE Analysis Process for Engineered Systems

"CIE Analysis Process for Engineered Systems" outlines a comprehensive methodology for integrating Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) principles into both new and existing engineered systems. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (DOE CESER), the process aims to achieve cyber-informed decisions by producing functional security requirements for new systems and retrofitting existing systems to mitigate digital risks. The document details a step-by-step approach, including mission and function definition, digital asset awareness, consequence analysis, and mitigation analysis. It emphasizes the importance of documenting mechanical, electrical, programmable, and network components to protect system functions and provides examples and considerations for each step. The ultimate goal is to ensure that engineered systems remain resilient against cyber threats, maintaining safety, performance, and reliability.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Biphasic response of human iPSC-derived neural network activity following exposure to a sarin-surrogate nerve agent

Organophosphorus nerve agents (OPNA) are hazardous environmental exposures to the civilian population and have been historically weaponized as chemical warfare agents (CWA). OPNA exposure can lead to several neurological, sensory, and motor symptoms that can manifest into chronic neurological illnesses later in life. There is still a large need for technological advancement to better understand changes in brain function following OPNA exposure. The human-relevant in vitro multi-electrode array (MEA) system, which combines the MEA technology with human stem cell technology, has the potential to monitor the acute, sub-chronic, and chronic consequences of OPNA exposure on brain activity. However, the application of this system to assess OPNA hazards and risks to human brain function remains to be investigated. In a concentration-response study, we have employed a human-relevant MEA system to monitor and detect changes in the electrical activity of engineered neural networks to increasing concentrations of the sarin surrogate 4-nitrophenyl isopropyl methylphosphonate (NIMP). We report a biphasic response in the spiking (but not bursting) activity of neurons exposed to low (i.e., 0.4 and 4 μM) versus high concentrations (i.e., 40 and 100 μM) of NIMP, which was monitored during the exposure period and up to 6 days post-exposure. Regardless of the NIMP concentration, at a network level, communication or coordination of neuronal activity decreased as early as 60 min and persisted at 24 h of NIMP exposure. Once NIMP was removed, coordinated activity was no different than control (0 μM of NIMP). Interestingly, only in the high concentration of NIMP did coordination of activity at a network level begin to decrease again at 2 days post-exposure and persisted on day 6 post-exposure. Notably, cell viability was not affected during or after NIMP exposure. Also, while the catalytic activity of AChE decreased during NIMP exposure, its activity recovered once NIMP was removed. Gene expression analysis suggests that human iPSC-derived neurons and primary human astrocytes resulted in altered genes related to the cell’s interaction with the extracellular environment, its intracellular calcium signaling pathways, and inflammation, which could have contributed to how neurons communicated at a network level.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Engineering Against Digital Risk in CIP Applications: Cyber-Informed Engineering Use Cases

Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) addresses the reality that cyber attacks on engineered systems can have consequences far beyond data loss or disruption of digital networks. When control systems are compromised, safety, reliability, and performance of the physical process itself may be threatened. This presentation discusses engineered controls of 7 categories and the CIE database of controls that provides clear examples and guidance for defining and applying engineered controls in CIE. It explains what engineered controls are, how they differ from information security measures, and how they are integrated into system design.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of Joint Cyber/Safety Risk in Nuclear Power Systems

This report presents an analysis of the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) for a generic Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)-4 NPP. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) developed Hazards and Consequences Analysis for Digital Systems (HAZCADS) process is applied to the ECCS and its subsystems to identify unsafe control actions (UCAs) which act as possible cyber events of concern. The analysis is performed for two design basis events: Small-break Loss of Coolant Accident (SLOCA) and general transients (TRANS), such as unintended reactor trip. In previous work, HAZCADS UCAs were combined with other cyber-attack analysis to develop a risk-informed approach; however, this was for a single system. This report explores advanced systems engineering modeling approaches to model the interactions between digital assets across multiple systems which may be targeted by cyber adversaries. The complex and interdependent design of digital systems has the potential to introduce emergent cyber properties that are generally not covered by hazard analyses nor formal nuclear Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). The R&D and supporting analysis presented here explores approaches to predict and manage how interdependent system properties effect risk. To show the potential impact of a successful cyber-attack to formal PRA event tree probabilities, HAZCADS analysis was also used. HAZCADS was also used to model the automatic depressurization system (ADS) automatic actuation. This analysis extended to an integrated system analysis for common-cause failure (CCF). In this aspect, the HAZCADS analysis continued by analyzing plant design details for system connectivity in support of critical plant functions. A dependency matrix was developed to depict the integrated functionality of the interconnected systems. Areas of potential CCF are indicated. Future work could include adversary attack development to show how CCF could be caused, resulting in PRA events. Across the multiple systems that comprise the ECCS, the analysis shows that the change in such probabilities was very different between systems. This indicates that some systems have a larger potential risk impact from successful cyber-attack or digital failure, which indicates a need for these systems to have a higher priority for design and defensive measures. Furthermore, we were able to establish that a risk analysis using any arbitrary threat model establishes an ordering of components with regard to cyber-risk. This ordering can be used to influence the overall system design with an eye to lowering risk, or as a way to understand real-time risk to operational systems based on a current threat landscape. Expert knowledge of both the analysis process and the system being analyzed is required to perform a HAZCADS analysis. The need for a tiered risk analysis is demonstrated by the results of this report.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Transformational Regional-Scale Earthquake Simulations with the DOE EarthQuake SIMulation Exascale Framework

Earthquakes present worldwide risk to economic and human safety. The 2023 earthquakes in Turkiye provided a reminder of the potential for catastrophic consequences with 50,700 deaths and 15.7 million people affected. The ability to predict ground motions and infrastructure damage for earthquakes continues to be a challenging problem for scientists and engineers. Until now, estimates of ground motions have been performed empirically by looking at sparse data from past earthquakes. This approach can provide statistical information on intensity amplitudes but cannot inform site-specific ground motions essential to developing the most effective resilience. Interest has grown in large-scale computational models to simulate earthquakes at regional scale. The U.S. Department of Energy EarthQuake SIMulation (EQSIM) framework was developed for regional-scale earthquake simulations at unprecedented fidelity, taking advantage of emerging GPU-accelerated systems. This article describes the EQSIM workflow and demonstrates regional-scale simulations with the new computational capability available to scientists in their quest to mitigate future disasters.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Isotopic fractionation as in-situ sensor of subsurface reactive flow and precursor for rock failure

Greater utilization of subsurface reservoirs perturbs in-situ chemical-mechanical conditions with wide ranging consequences from decreased performance to project failure. Understanding the chemical precursors to rock deformation is critical to reducing the risks of these activities. To address this need, we investigated the coupled flow-dissolution- precipitation-adsorption reactions involving calcite and environmentally-relevant solid phases. Experimentally, we quantified (1) stable isotope fractionation processes for strontium during calcite nucleation and growth, and during reactive fluid flow; (2) consolidation behavior of calcite assemblages in the common brines. Numerically, we quantified water weakening of calcite using molecular dynamics simulations; and quantified the impact of calcite dissolution rate on macroscopic fracturing using finite element models. With microfluidic experiments and modeling, we show the effect of local flow fields on the dissolution kinetics of calcite. Taken together across a wide range of scales and methods, our studies allow us to separate the effects of reaction, flow, and transport, on calcite fracturing and the evolution of strontium isotopic signatures in the reactive fluids.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Securing Digital Energy Infrastructure: Procurement, Contracting, and Supply Chain Risk Management Guidance

Recognizing the scale of this industry challenge, the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Grid Deployment Office (GDO) and Cybersecurity Energy Security & Emergency Response office have launched a multi-year BESS supply chain security initiative to identify consequence-driven approaches to addressing BESS supply chain security and provide resources to support prioritization of supply chain security efforts associated with the procurement of BESS equipment and services. This guide is one element of the supporting resources to be provided and sets forth a framework and guidance for procurement bidding, selection, risk analysis, and agreements stakeholders can implement to mitigate cybersecurity risks across the entirety of battery system component ecosystem, including the interconnected software and hardware required for control and monitoring BESSs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Multicriterion benefit evaluation methodology for safety enhancements in nuclear power plants and application for FLEX strategies

Here we propose a multicriterion benefit evaluation (MCBE) methodology for evaluating costs and benefits of implementing safety enhancements in nuclear power plants. The MCBE methodology establishes a comprehensive evaluation scope using multiple evaluation criteria (including public risk, occupational risk, plant revenue, and plant cost) and multiple contexts (including plant normal operations, incidents, and accidents). The MCBE methodology formulates a benefit or cost element as the product of a monetary consequence and its occurrence-likelihood change. The MCBE methodology also incorporates a decision maker’ preferences toward occurrence likelihood and monetary consequence into cost and benefit estimations through a modified usage of cumulative prospect theory. This paper applies the MCBE methodology to the implementation of diverse and flexible coping strategy (FLEX) in a generic nuclear power plant as an illustrative example. The FLEX benefits are evaluated through three types of influence paths: plant safety enhancement, risk-informed activities, and potential additional credit of FLEX in supporting plant operation and maintenance-efficiency improvement. The benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of FLEX implementation is calculated. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to examine the impacts of modeling assumptions and input parameter values on the BCR.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

DOE OSTI2024

Mitigating commutation failures in HVDC systems with SFCL deployment

Commutation failures represent a prevalent issue encountered in line-commutated-converter high voltage direct current (LCC-HVDC) systems. As the widespread deployment of HVDC systems continues, the risk associated with commutation failures increases, posing a growing threat to power grids due to their potential to trigger severe consequences, including cascading failures and widespread blackouts. This research paper aims to address the significant issue of commutation failure within direct current (DC) systems through advocating for the use of resistive-type Superconducting Fault Current Limiters (R-SFCLs). To substantiate the efficacy of this proposed strategy, an array of simulations are executed using the PSCAD/EMTDC software. This comprehensive study investigates the performance characteristics of R-SFCLs configured with varying resistance values, scrutinizing their response under diverse fault resistance scenarios and distinct fault initiation times within the LCC-HVDC system. The outcomes of these simulations are that SFCLs confer significant advantages for mitigating commutation failures, surpassing traditional mitigation methods in terms of effectiveness. Consequently, SFCLs emerge as an optimal solution to prevent commutation failures in the HVDC systems.

Commutation failure↗

DOE OSTI2023

Examining Rail Transportation Route of Crude Oil in the United States Using Crowdsourced Social Media Data

Safety issues associated with transporting crude oil by rail have been a concern since the boom of the U.S. domestic shale oil production in 2012. During the last decade, over 300 crude-oil-by-rail incidents have occurred in the United States. Some of them have caused adverse consequences including fire and hazardous materials leakage. However, only limited information on crude-on-rail routes and their associated risks is available to the public. To this end, this study proposed an unconventional way to reconstruct crude-on-rail routes using geotagged photos harvested from the Flickr website. The proposed method linked the geotagged photos of crude oil trains posted online with national railway networks to identify potential railway segments that those crude oil trains were traveling on. Here, a shortest path-based method was applied to infer the complete crude-on-rail routes, by utilizing the confirmed railway segments as well as their directional information. Validation of the inferred routes was performed using a public map and official crude oil incident data. The results suggested that the inferred routes based on geotagged photos had high coverage, with approximately 96% of the documented crude oil incidents aligned with the reconstructed crude-on-rail network. The inferred crude oil train routes were found to pass through several metropolitan areas of high population density, who were exposed to potential risk. These findings could improve situational awareness for policy makers and transportation planners. In addition, with the inferred routes, this study has established a good foundation for future crude oil train risk-analyses along the rail route.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

CCE Phase 2: System-of-System Analysis

During Phase 1, Consequence Prioritization, the CCE Team identified High Consequence Events (HCEs) that can be accomplished through cyber means to impact critical functions, services, and processes. During Phase 2, System-of-Systems Analysis (SoS Analysis), the CCE Team will conduct a systematic review and analysis of information related to the equipment, systems, processes, operations, maintenance, testing, and procurement practices based on the HCEs identified in Phase 1.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2020

CCE Phase 1: Consequence Prioritization

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) developed the Consequence-driven Cyber-informed Engineering (CCE) methodology to provide public and private organizations with steps to work collaboratively and establish a working relationship to protect critical infrastructure and other national assets. This process is a considerable undertaking, iterative in nature, and—as time and resources allow—should become a part of a company’s culture. By focusing on the impact of potentially negative Events, CCE provides a better understanding of how and why adversaries can affect critical functions and services using cyber-enabled sabotage. This document describes Phase 1 of the CCE process.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2021

SiPA | Simple Partnership Agreement for accelerating early-stage collaborations between startups and large corporations

The technologies required to advance society will come from research from a broad range of scientific disciplines including materials science, chemistry, physics, and biology where the innovation relies on a scientific breakthrough rather than a software or business model innovation. This science-based technology focus can be referred to as “hardtech,” although there is much crossover with the concept of “cleantech.” These new technology developments will have vast reach across most industrial sectors - energy, materials, manufacturing, electronics, life sciences, etc. - with great economic consequences. The majority of these scientific breakthroughs will be produced and developed by those companies best suited for high-risk, early-stage development work: startups.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Risk Analysis of a Hydrogen Generation Facility near a Nuclear Power Plant

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are considering flexible plant operations to take advantage of excess thermal and electrical energy. One option for NPPs is to pursue hydrogen production through high temperature electrolysis as an alternate revenue stream to remain economically viable. The intent of this study is to investigate the risk of a hydrogen production facility in close proximity to an NPP. A 100 MW, 500 MW, and 1,000 MW facility are evaluated herein. Previous analyses have evaluated preliminary designs of a hydrogen production facility in a conservative manner to determine if it is feasible to co-locate the facility within 1 km of an NPP. This analysis specifically evaluates the risk components of different hydrogen production facility designs, including the likelihood of a leak within the system and the associated consequence to critical NPP targets. This analysis shows that although the likelihood of a leak in an HTEF is not negligible, the consequence to critical NPP targets is not expected to lead to a failure given adequate distance from the plant.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2026

Species-specific acoustic responses by bats to ultrasonic stimuli used for reducing bat-wind turbine interactions

An unintended consequence of wind energy generation is bat fatalities caused by wind turbine blade strikes. One potential approach to reduce collision risk is to use ultrasound to create an uncomfortable or disorienting airspace around wind turbine blades. Ultrasonic deterrents (UDs) have produced mixed results in experimental field studies at commercial wind energy facilities, with effectiveness varying by species and location. It is possible that some species can alter their normal echolocation characteristics to counter the signal of UDs. Our broad objective was to maximize the effectiveness of a UD by comparing changes in echolocation characteristics during three UD frequency emissions among species, between seasons, and between sex. We hypothesized that UD emissions with frequencies most similar to each species’ echolocation characteristics would be more likely to alter the bats’ echolocation, and bat responses would vary between seasons and sex for each species. We released wild-captured bats into a 60 m × 10 m × 4.4 m (length × width × height) flight cage located in San Marcos, Texas, USA, from July to October 2020 and March to May 2021 and monitored echolocation frequencies with ultrasonic microphones. We conducted trials on Brazilian free-tailed bats ( Tadarida brasiliensis ; n = 54), cave myotis ( Myotis velifer ; n = 44), red bats ( Lasiurus blossevilli , Lasiurus borealis ; n = 41), evening bats ( Nycticeius humeralis ; n = 32), and tricolored bats ( Perimyotis subflavus ; n = 8). We found that species with high-frequency echolocation calls altered their echolocation signatures more commonly during high-frequency UD emissions, whereas low-frequency bats altered their echolocation signatures more commonly during low-frequency UD emissions. Additionally, echolocation responses varied between seasons and sexes for several species. Variations in responses may be dependent on species migratory status, differences in mating behavior and mating season, hormonal differences between sexes and seasons, and/or constraints on echolocation adaptability. Our results offer insights into the variable effectiveness of UDs at reducing bat fatalities at wind turbines and provide information for potential adjustments to UDs for improved success.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

CCE and Resilience Strategies

Consequence-driven Cyber-informed Engineering (CCE) is a methodology focused on securing the nation’s critical infrastructure systems. Developed at Idaho National Laboratory, CCE starts with the assumption that if a critical infrastructure system is targeted by a skilled and determined adversary, the targeted network can and will be penetrated. This think like the adversary approach provides critical infrastructure owners, operators, vendors and manufacturers with a disciplined methodology to: evaluate complex systems; determine what must be fully safeguarded; and apply proven engineering strategies to isolate and protect an industry’s most critical assets.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2023

Cyber-Informed Engineering Implementation Guide

This Implementation Guide describes the principles of Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) and outlines questions that engineering teams should consider during each phase of a system’s lifecycle to effectively employ these principles. It describes what it means to engineer systems in a cyber-informed way, rather than offering a comprehensive, step-by-step process or procedure for CIE implementation. This guide complements—but does not replace—the application of cybersecurity standards or practices currently in place within an organization. Engineers and technicians that design critical energy infrastructure installations can use this Implementation Guide to integrate the 12 principles of CIE into each phase of the engineering lifecycle, from concept to retirement. The guide is aimed at system or design engineers, rather than software engineers or operational cybersecurity practitioners. The engineers who design, build, operate, and maintain the physical infrastructure are best positioned to leverage a system’s engineering design to diminish the severity of cyber attacks or digital technology failures. CIE expands cybersecurity decisions into the engineering space, not by asking engineers to become cyber experts, but by calling on engineers to apply engineering tools and make engineering decisions that improve cybersecurity outcomes. CIE examines the engineering consequences that a sophisticated cyber attacker could achieve and drives engineering changes that may provide deterministic mitigations to limit or eliminate those consequences.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Computational Review of Privacy-Preserving Mechanisms for the Smart Grid

Smart grid technologies have rapidly become one of the largest and most comprehensive sources of data for the modern utility. For the most part, data streams are seen as an essential tool that enable utilities to carry their day-to-day business operations, but they also create the need for efficient and secure data management strategies. In the context of the smart grid, ensuring data privacy is becoming an increasing concern due to a combination of factors that range from shifts in operational paradigms and rapid technology evolution to changes in legislation. Furthermore, researchers have highlighted the risks associated with improperly protected energy records. For example, energy consumption data from homes could be used to infer the behaviors and habits of home occupants through activity recognition or user profiling (Fan, 2017), which may lead to unfair service pricing, targeted advertising, or other personal security violations. Similarly, Electric Vehicles’ (EVs) charging metadata could be used to reveal private information about the owner such as their payment methods, preferred charging stations, and other locational and timing information that could be used to reconstruct the vehicle owner’s behaviors. The privacy of user data, even when used for statistical analysis or machine learning training processes, also needs to be carefully considered, as an individual’s private traits may still be vulnerable if their inclusion/exclusion greatly impacts the result or could be linked to a public dataset through cross-reference. The breach of user privacy also has severe impacts for organizations that store, transmit, or work on the data in the form of diminishing the public’s trust in them while potentially incurring legal consequences (e.g., fines and suspensions under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, etc.). Because of these risks, several privacy-preserving mechanisms are available to help organizations comply with privacy legislations and prevent the unauthorized and malicious use of user data. In light of these concerns, this report focuses on performing a computational review of privacy-preserving mechanisms that have received a significant amount of interest in literature. It specifically focuses on 1) homomorphic encryption, 2) zero-knowledge proofs, 3) differential privacy, and 4) federated learning. It is worth noting that although many of the methods presented in this document rely on cryptographic primitives, their intent is not to provide perfect secrecy, but rather to enable users to maintain privacy, and thus they shall not be compared or equated to other constructs that are aimed to address cybersecurity constructs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗