The National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) is a Department of Homeland Security program that addresses the potential vulnerabilities and consequences of disruption of our nation’s critical infrastructure.
The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has recently been named a supporting Laboratory to the NISAC, providing scientific computational capabilities, and modeling and analysis expertise to discover relationships and develop insights about infrastructure vulnerabilities in the case of terrorism, accidents or natural disaster emergencies.
“NISAC recognizes PNNL’s in depth analytic capabilities in critical infrastructure,” said Alan Berscheid, NISAC principal investigator at PNNL. “The expertise can be used to simulate events ranging from hurricanes to terrorist attacks and to predict and track potential impacts to critical facilities and the economy.”
PNNL will contribute advanced computer modeling and simulation capabilities to look at the dependencies, interdependencies, vulnerabilities, and complexities of important critical infrastructure sectors such as dams, water, transportation, energy and information technology.
PNNL’s expertise in visual analytics also will assist NISAC analysts by creating more dynamic representations of threats, vulnerabilities and consequences of disruptive events.
