Power to the people

17.04.2009

D. S. , who works in a nuclear power plant, reassures me that I probably won't wake up one night to find myself glowing:

I wanted you to know that off-site power loss is planned for and Safety Drilled for regularly. We have two alternate power sources and we can draw power from the adjacent plants if required. Furthermore, the security you are discussing is for the grid with conventional power producers. The NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] has required us to spend millions to protect against cyber attacks. All that said, we have already shown that the grid is vulnerable. . . The nucs are safe. They may shutdown but they are safe.

That's good. Because as useful as it may sound at the moment, I don't really want to grow any extra limbs.