NRC to Look at PLCs

Today the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 7406) acknowledging that it had received a petition for rulemaking under 10 CFR 2.802(c) {NOTE: The notice mistakenly lists 10 USC 2.802(c)} that requests that the NRC “NRC require ‘new-design programmable logic computers’ to be installed in the control systems of nuclear power plants to block malware attacks on their industrial control systems of those facilities”.

The notice explains that since the petition was received in proper form that the NRC will officially consider it. The NRC is not requesting public comments on the petition or the topic at this time. A docket has been established on the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # NRC-2013-0214) that will be used to make information about this petition available.