Secure trilateral access control for network-integrated nuclear operation and condition-based nuclear maintenance

The intent of this thesis research is to develop a new methodology to improve existing nuclear process in an efficient, precise, and cost-effective way. This thesis presents three new designs: Secure Trilateral Access Control (STAC), Network-Integrated Nuclear Operation (NINO), and network-driven Condition-Based Nuclear Maintenance (CBNM). STAC design has three tiers: Tier-1 ensures security controls of external accesses to the new nuclear network. Tier-2 ensures qualification controls for carrying nuclear operations. Tier-3 ensures qualification controls for nuclear maintenances. NINO design is to increase efficiency of conducting nuclear operations and ensure correctness of executing targeted operations. CBNM design is to increase efficiency and cost savings for conducting nuclear maintenance and schedule maintenance based on equipment conditions to avoid extremely expensive forced outages. Feasibility and practicality of these new designs are illustrated analytically and numerically in the thesis. The significance of these designs is tremendous, resulting in huge nuclear operation cost savings.