[Hetty_Fauxvert]

The substation was back up in less than a month. All of the equipment is normally available as spares.

* * *

I read the entire WSJ article last night and I don’t feel a bit calm. Yes, the substation was up in less than a month, but they had to do substantial rerouting around it. Had several substations been taken out at the same time, it would probably have resulted in a widespread blackout. If you had enough people to do this across the U.S. at the same time, it would take a loooooong time to get it all back up again. As for the parts, the WSJ article stated that while they have a *few* extras, they don’t have many, and it takes quite some time to manufacture more.

[meatloaf]

After TMI the nuke utilities started sharing information. There is a regular program of sharing information on issues so that if something is unreliable or unusual or a problem in any way or a better way all of the nuke utilities know about it quickly. The information is made available to everyone within the utility. I'm not sure if that was an NRC enforced change or not.

While we didn't hear about the attack, I'm sure utilities knew about it soon after. Substations are instrumented. The article mentions the phone lines. Natural gas utilities used radio to monitor facilities in the 1950s.

What do you think happened after that attack? You and I don't know. I can't imagine the utility executives are sitting around twiddling their thumbs. If I was a utility CEO, I would already have a report that evaluated the vulnerability of substations along with recommendations and priorities. One of which would be remote sensing of another attack.

I suspect another attack may not go as smoothly for the perpetrators as the one we finally heard about. The news blackout was probably designed to prevent copy cats and possibly encourage another attack. While the attackers tried to cover their tracks, I would be surprised if the FBI isn't following up on every piece of evidence including looking at video from every available source in that area.

There are probably protocols in place via the fusion centers to process the next crime scene. Some of the substations may have been set up as traps. Meaning things are in place to at least snag more evidence next time.

Fusion centers collect an amazing amount of information across the country and then correlate it. Now that an attack has occurred, the “system” is primed to collect information that in the past may have been ignored or more likely not recognized for its relevance. Many of this country's first responders have been briefed on the fusion centers. The rules of the ballgame changed whether the general public knows or not.