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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Beyond gates, guards and guns : the systems-theoretic framework for security at nuclear facilities

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Current approaches to nuclear security can produce elegantly designed physical protection systems (PPS) that may be limited by untenable assumptions or well stated-albeit vague and imprecise-descriptions of how to improve nuclear security culture itself. According to one nuclear security culture expert: While the International Atomic Energy Agency has released methodologies on evaluating vulnerabilities and physical protection, it has not yet introduced guidelines on assessing the human-factor in detection, delay, and response. (Khripunov, 2014, pp. 39-40) (Emphasis added) This dissertation argues that such a link lies in understanding how organizational influences affect the completion of tasks required for PPS to meet expected nuclear security performance goals. In this dissertation, I propose the System-Theoretic Framework for Security (the STFS) for evaluating system-level interactions between PPS and human/organizational behaviors to describe overall security performance.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctoral
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Williams, Adam D.(Adam David),Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • John S. Carroll.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122900
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122900

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Williams, Adam D.(Adam David),Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.. Beyond gates, guards and guns : the systems-theoretic framework for security at nuclear facilities. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122900