Enhancing the usefulness of Vital Area Analyses for nuclear power plants

A detailed VAA (vital area analysis) of a nuclear plant was completed using three new techniques that enhance the usefulness of the VAA. These techniques are the following: 1) the development of a plant component data base to support understanding and interpretation of VAA results, 2) the encoding of plant area identifiers with codes reflecting required adversary actions to sabotage equipment within the area, and 3) usage of a graphic data base for displaying plant vital areas and corresponding security system components. This paper discusses the application and demonstrated usefulness of these techniques in the context of the recently completed VAA