"The MELCOR code analyzes severe accidents in nuclear power plants, their progression through core melting, should inadequate cooling be available, and the release to the environment should containment systems fail," Gauntt said.

The potential public impact of radiation leaks are evaluated using the MACCS code, which was also developed at Sandia for the NRC, Gauntt said.

Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Gov't Legislation/Regulation Topic Center.