India's Largest Nuclear Power Plant Denies Rumors of Cybersecurity Breach Stopping a Reactor

[btarunr]

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is India's largest, with two operational 1,000 MWe reactors, and four more under construction, making up a nameplate capacity of 6,000 MWe (electrical output) when fully built. Last Saturday (26th October), unit 2 was taken offline due to an "SG level low" (steam generator level low) error. This event, roughly coinciding with Twitter chatter on an alleged cyber-attack on the plant's computers on Tuesday, spread panic. Twitter threads from cyber-security handles chronicle a possible DTrack malware attack that gained access to the plant's domain controller.

On Tuesday, state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), which operates KKNPP, put out a press-release denying these rumors. In the press release, plant spokesperson R. Ramdoss states that the plant's computers are isolated from the Internet, and that an external cyberattack is "impossible." He stated that Unit 2 was taken offline due to a mechanical problem in its turbine hall (levels of steam being too low to turn the turbine). It's important to understand that a "Unit" in power plant jargon is a combination of a reactor and its turbine hall. The reactor splits atoms to heat water and make steam, the turbine hall uses this steam to make electricity. A "unit" being offline doesn't necessary mean that its reactor is, but that it's simply not putting out power to the grid. Ramdoss stated that as of Tuesday, units 1 and 2 were putting out 1,000 MWe and 600 MWe, respectively.



Update (late-Wednesday, 10/30): NPCIL retracted its earlier statement denying a cyber-attack, and released another press-release, stating that one of its PCs in the plant's administrative block that was exposed to the Internet, was infected by malware, and is being cleaned. This PC is isolated from the plant's internal network that operates the various critical systems. The investigation also revealed that the plant's internal computers are unaffected. The new press-release is pictured above. From the looks of it, the operational error on Saturday is unrelated to the cyber-attack.

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[hat]

Even if such computers are isolated from the Internet (as they should be), it wouldn't be impossible that a bad actor may have physical access to these computers. Of course they would deny that it was attacked. That said, it's far more likely that they shut it down themselves due to mechanical issues, as their explanation says.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Current nameplate capacity is 1864 MWe (2 x 1000 MWe gross from 2 x 3000 MW reactors). You can see in the picture that they're adding four more 1200 1000 MWe reactors. Units three and four (middle) have started construction.

The hackers may have gotten into the business side of the facility but, as they said, the systems controlling the reactors are offline.

 

[btarunr]

Current nameplate capacity is 1864 MWe (2 x 1000 MWe gross from 2 x 3000 MW reactors). You can see in the picture that they're adding four more 1200 MWe reactors. Units three and four (middle) have started construction.

The hackers may have gotten into the business side of the facility but, as they said, the systems controlling the reactors are offline.

It's rumored that units 3~6 are going to be VVER-1200 instead of VVER-1000 (1 and 2), but the company never confirmed it. How could you tell they're 1200 MWe from that picture?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's rumored that units 3~6 are going to be VVER-1200 instead of VVER-1000 (1 and 2), but the company never confirmed it. How could you tell they're 1200 MWe from that picture?

Did some digging and it appears that they are, in fact, VVER-1000 units:

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant attains criticality

The second reactor of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) attained criticality at 8.56 p.m. on Sunday.

www.thehindu.com

Having successfully accomplished the mission by operationalising the first two reactors, the KKNPP will now pay more attention for commencing the work on the construction of the third and fourth reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 MWe, at an outlay of Rs. 39,500 crore.

The reason why I brought it up is because OP has "nameplate capacity of 6,000 MWe (electrical output)" which I think you were getting from when all six units are installed. Nameplate capacity goes by maximum amount of power the facility can safely supply to the grid which is 1864 MWe until reactors 3 & 4 are operational.

 

[btarunr]

Did some digging and it appears that they are, in fact, VVER-1000 units:

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant attains criticality

The second reactor of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) attained criticality at 8.56 p.m. on Sunday.

www.thehindu.com

The reason why I brought it up is because OP has "nameplate capacity of 6,000 MWe (electrical output)" which I think you were getting from when all six units are installed. Nameplate capacity goes by maximum amount of power the facility can safely supply to the grid which is 1864 MWe until reactors 3 & 4 are operational.

Ahh thanks, clarified that.

Updated with a flip-flop from NPCIL. They maintain this was an admin block PC that was connected to the Internet, and isolated from the actual computers that run the plant.