The old stuxnet targeted iranian uranium enrichment centrifuges in a different. A prominent use of gas centrifuges is for the separation of uranium235 from uranium238. The ir1 centrifuge is the backbone of irans uraniumenrichment effort. Executive summary this document summarizes the most comprehensive research on the stuxnet malware so far. It combines results from reverse engineering the attack code with intelligence on the design of the attacked plant and background information on the attacked uranium enrichment process. How a centrifuge works federation of american scientists. Our customers typically supply us with natural uranium, uranium hexafluoride, which we then enrich to international specifications, using centrifuge technology designed and deployed by urenco. The system uses a novel indexing scheme based on the burrowswheeler transform bwt and the ferraginamanzini fm index, optimized specifically for the metagenomic classification problem. Discontinued uranium centrifuge more efficient uranium. Because the u238 atoms are slightly heavier than the u235 atoms, they tend to move out toward the walls of the centrifuge. Stuxnet the worlds dirtiest digital bomb, science online, 01.
Developments in the uranium enrichment industry by ole pedersen until a few years ago, the uranium enrichment market was characterized by one major supplier, one technology, on set of terms and conditions for supply, and ample capacity to meet demand. Enriching uranium is difficult because the isotopes are practically identical in chemistry and very similar in weight. One 5ft centrifuge can separate about 30 grams of weaponsgrade uranium per year. Historically, several techniques have been used but the method that is overwhelming preferred today is a gas centrifuge. Because the two isotopes of uranium are chemically indistinguishable, physical methods that exploit the small difference in weight must be used to enrich uranium in the 235 isotope.
At a uranium enrichment plant, thousands of centrifuges are chained together in long cascades. The backbone of irans uranium enrichment effort is the ir1 centrifuge which goes back to a european design of the late sixties early seventies that was stolen by pakistani nuclear trafficker a. Separation efficiency in a centrifuge depends on weight difference. First, it analyzed and targeted windows networks and computer systems. Stuxnet was developed by the american and israeli governments and used to wreak havoc on an iranian nuclear facility called natanz. More than 0 gas centrifuges were installed there and an additional 700 were operated by doe with uranium hexafluoride at the gas centrifuge enrichment plant in piketon, ohio. If uranium can be put into a gaseous form, then the molecules containing the lighter u235 will have a. Iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad observes computer monitors at the natanz uranium enrichment plant in central iran, where stuxnet was believed to have infected pcs and damaged centrifuges. Dutch mole planted stuxnet virus in iran nuclear site on behalf of. The laser separation technology is under development for possible use to enrich uranium. The stuxnet worm first emerged during the summer of 2010. The nuclear reprocessing plant is attacked, the uranium. Classifier for metagenomic sequences centrifuge is a novel microbial classification engine that enables rapid, accurate and sensitive labeling of reads and quantification of species on desktop computers. The protection system is a critical system component for irans nuclear program as without it, iran would not be capable of sustained uranium enrichment.
Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm, first uncovered in 2010, thought to have been in development since at least 2005. So you need thousands in order to make enough weaponsgrade uranium for a bomb within a few years. Iran is estimated to have about 18,000 ir1 centrifuges, only half operational, with performance totaling about 9000 kg swu year although theoretically higher see the world nuclear associations uranium enrichment page. Uranium powers both nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs. A declaration of cyberwar last summer, the worlds top software security experts were panicked by the discovery of a dronelike computer virus, radically different from and far more. The purpose of this new virus was not understood at the time, but it was later determined to be an early version of the socalled stuxnet virus which was designed to infiltrate and attack programmable logic controllers plcs installed at the uranium enrichment facility in iran, a critical part of that country. Russias tvel fuel company tenex for operations abroad is the largest operator of nuclear enrichment centrifuges and absolute leader of worlds radioisotope market, possessing about 30,000 separative work units swu, which is almost half of the worlds total 65,000 swus. Stuxnet worm attack on iranian nuclear facilities stanford university.
Russia 1st to test 10gen uranium enrichment centrifuges. Specifically, it targets centrifuges used to produce the enriched uranium that powers. Atomic energy commission decided to revive centrifuge research in september 1954. Stuxnet opens cracks in iran nuclear program abc science stuxnet unleashes malware warfare, science online, 18 oct 2011. The virus, later named stuxnet a combination of letters from key software words, sought out controls for the centrifuges, which spin at precise supersonic speeds. As a result, the uranium centrifuge became temporarily uncontrollable. Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in june 2010 that is believed to have been created by the united states and israel to attack irans nuclear facilities. Stuxnet may have destroyed 1,000 centrifuges at natanz.
Cyber weapon threatening to cripple entire nations has hallmarks of the nsa cyber experts. An unprecedented look at stuxnet, the worlds first. When you finish processing uranium ore, what you have is uranium oxide. The original theoretical work was done by dirac and onsager also worked on the problem. The zippe design was originally developed in the soviet union by a team led by 60 austrian and german scientists and. Stuxnetstyle virus failed to infiltrate north koreas nuclear program. It is an obsolete design that iran never managed to operate reliably. A gas centrifuge is a device that performs isotope separation of gases. The real life scifi story of the worlds first digital weapon. Stuxnet virus may have actually helped the iranian nuclear. At the end of a long chain of centrifuges, you have uranium hexafluoride gas containing a high concentration of u235 atoms.
Uranium oxide contains two types or isotopes of uranium. Zippetype centrifuge centrifuge uranium enrichment. The code for one driver, a very small part of the overall package, has. Whats so special about uranium centrifuges anandtech. For instance, the payload which specifically looks for uranium centrifuge hardware is independent of the worm which carries the payload. The operation of uranium centrifuges is complex they require precise temperature control, precise vacuum pressure control, and special highspeed motors with. Plcs are how computers interact with and control industrial machinery like uranium centrifuges. Khans extensive nuclear proliferation network based upon gas centrifuge technology used to enrich uranium to weaponsgrade has created a crisis of confidence in the nonproliferation regime. What is stuxnet, who created it and how does it work. Stuxnet virus may have actually helped the iranian nuclear program a new report claims the virus was illtimed and ineffective, diagnosing a vulnerability in iranians system that had not yet been. Access the benefits to support the growth of your business.
Through the flexible operation of this technology, we are also able to. The centrifuge processes uranium ore and splits it into uranium235 and uranium238. The worm then alters the plcs programming, resulting in the centrifuges being spun too quickly and. For years, usec has touted its whizzinger gargantuan uranium centrifuges, while pleading for likewise enormous federal. Attack that damaged iranian centrifuges, uncovered in 2010, required operative to carry sabotaging software into natanz site and deliver. When two infected computers encounter one another, they check to make sure they both have the most recent version of the virus. The effort, involving the national security agency, the cia and israels military, has included the use of destructive software such as the stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in irans. In november of 2007 a new computer virus was submitted to a virus scanning service. A lot of the detailed information is classified, though some explicit information on the hydrodynamics involved is available. Centrifuges can also be used to reprocess used nuclear fuel or enrich extra. Two other licenses were granted by the nrc for the construction of commercial gas centrifuge facilities. An iranian engineer recruited by the netherlands planted the stuxnet virus at an iranian nuclear research site in 2007, sabotaging uranium enrichment centrifuges in what is widely regarded as the.
Thanks to stuxnet, we now live in a world where code can destroy machinery and stop or start a war. Stuxnet and the launch of the worlds first digital weapon, written by wired senior staff writer kim zetter, tells the story behind stuxnets planning, execution and. Stuxnet was a 500kilobyte computer worm that infiltrated numerous computer systems. Dutch mole planted stuxnet virus in iran nuclear site on. Department of energy doe developed a gas centrifuge program, including construction and operation of a test cascade in oak ridge, tn. The revelation was buried in a footnote of the latest report from the iaea on irans nuclear program, and was immediately interpreted by computer security analysts and others as an indication that irans uranium enrichment program was the main intended target of the stuxnet computer worm attack. It goes back to a european design from the late 1960s and early 1970s that was stolen and slightly improved by pakistani.
This malware was capable of spreading only by being. Now the market is passing through a period of extraordinary change and uncertainty. A november 20 article in foreign policy magazine claims existence of an earlier, much more sophisticated attack on the centrifuge complex at natanz, focused on increasing centrifuge failure rate over a long time period by stealthily inducing uranium hexafluoride gas overpressure incidents. Frequently asked questions about gas centrifuge enrichment. Fearing a loss of their uraniumenrichment monopoly, the u. How many uranium centrifuges does the united states have. Did stuxnet break out of natanz due to a programming error. The zippetype centrifuge is a gas centrifuge designed to enrich the rare fissile uranium isotope uranium235 out of the mixture of isotopes found in naturally occurring uranium compounds. Uranium gas flows through the pipes into the centrifuges in a series of. The history of the gas centrifuge and its role in nuclear.
Computer malware sabotaged uranium centrifuges wired. Uranium can be enriched by separating isotopes of uranium with lasers. Aims at management software packages and facilities for siemens process control system scada to attack irans nuclear reprocessing plant. They can be developed separately, by different people, and combined. Stuxnet opens cracks in iran nuclear program dr karls. Now that the uranium is in a gaseous form, it is easier to work with. Stuxnet introduces the infected rootkit onto the plc and step7 software.
Russian centrifuges are also the most advanced and have higher output capacity than swus from rival companies in. The questions and answers on this page provide information about one method of enriching uranium using centrifuges. Using nuclear enrichment as an example, the centrifuges need to spin at a precise speed for long periods of time in order to extract the pure uranium, symantecs liam o murchu told threat level. Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm that came. The creation of the centrifuges is a huge technological challenge. Gas centrifuge theory and development 3 beyerle, and a dutch group led by jacob kistemaker, began asserting that their centrifuges would soon be more economical than americanstyle diffusion.
Uranium backup free is also available with updates and technical support in commercial editions. It should always be more efficient to process uranium using the centrifuge over the basic refinery, the primary downsides are that it only processes uranium and it. An unprecedented look at stuxnet, the worlds first digital weapon. To kill a centrifuge detailed stuxnet analysis langner. Federation of american scientists how a centrifuge works. The earlier version of the virus code was submitted to a computer security site back in 2007, but it was years later when it was identified as one by experts dissecting later versions of stuxnet. The worm initially spreads indiscriminately, but includes a highly specialized malware payload that is designed to target only siemens supervisory control and data acquisition scada systems that. Download uranium backup, a complete backup software. The isotopic separation is based on the slight difference in mass of the isotopes.
However, uranium cannot be used in its natural form it must be processed to increase the concentration of the active isotope of uranium, u235. The virus searched each infected pc for signs of siemens step 7 software. The centrifuge creates a force thousands of times more powerful than the force of gravity. The history of the gas centrifuge and its role in nuclear proliferation the discovery of a. How a mole got the stuxnet virus into irans nuclear computers. Characteristics of the gas centrifuge for uranium enrichment and their relevance for nuclear weapon proliferation corrected alexander glaser program on science and global security, princeton university, 221 nassau st.
Centrifuge is a very rapid and memoryefficient system for the classification of dna sequences from microbial samples, with better sensitivity than and comparable accuracy to other leading systems. The stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software. Stuxnet is malware that was designed to sabotage irans nuclear enrichment facility. The status of these licensees are found in this chart. A centrifuge relies on the principles of centripetal force accelerating molecules so that particles of different masses are physically separated in a gradient along the radius of a rotating container. You can put the gas into a centrifuge and spin it up. Like iron, you dig uranium ore out of the ground and then process it to extract the pure uranium from the ore. Stuxnet may have destroyed 1,000 centrifuges at natanz malicious computer virus accelerated, wrecked motors and may have decommissioned uranium enrichment centrifuges, think. Stuxnet is an extremely sophisticated computer worm that exploits.
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