Nuclear energy and security

How do you secure a facility where the consequences of being wrong are measured in decades?

Nuclear energy is returning to the center of the decarbonization conversation, and with it the questions of safeguards, physical and cyber security, and who is trained to run these systems. The center's nuclear work sits alongside its grid and AI work rather than apart from it: a reactor is a cyber-physical system with an unusually long shadow.

What the group builds

Safeguards measurement and detector modeling

Modeling detector response for safeguards verification, and the measurement campaigns that support it, alongside the UMass Lowell research reactor.

Security of nuclear facilities

Physical and cyber security for facilities where an incident is not recoverable, including the analysis of security incidents at nuclear plants.

Robotics for environments people should not enter

Robotic platforms for inspection and response inside nuclear facilities, developed with national laboratory partners.

Policy and training

The Massachusetts Advanced Nuclear and Fusion Energy Roadmaps for the Commonwealth, and the IAEA-funded Intercontinental Nuclear Institute, which trains early-career professionals internationally.

Other thrusts

Most projects cut across two or three of them.

Smart grid cybersecurity and resilience AI and agentic systems for cyber-physical control Next-generation optical and 6G transport Fault-tolerant distributed and edge computing Hardware security and high performance computing Connected transportation, health, and infrastructure