Introduction
Advanced nuclear technologies — especially Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) — are accelerating in 2026, driven by power demand from AI data centers and decarbonization goals. WEF flags advanced nuclear as a top emerging technology. The IT infrastructure behind nuclear facilities requires extreme reliability, regulatory compliance, and security hardening. Ansible automates monitoring systems, safety instrumentation networks, NRC/IAEA compliance, radiation monitoring, and SCADA security.
Nuclear IT Infrastructure
| System | Purpose | Ansible Role |
|---|---|---|
| Plant Information System | Real-time process data | Deploy + configure |
| Radiation Monitoring | Dose tracking, environmental | Sensor deployment |
| Safety Instrumentation | Emergency systems | Configuration management |
| SCADA/DCS | Process control network | Security hardening |
| Compliance Reporting | NRC/IAEA reports | Automated generation |
| Cybersecurity | NEI 08-09 compliance | Continuous hardening |
Deploy Radiation Monitoring Network
---
- name: Deploy radiation monitoring infrastructure
hosts: radiation_monitors
become: true
vars:
monitoring_interval_sec: 10
alert_threshold_usv: 20
tasks:
- name: Install monitoring software
ansible.builtin.package:
name:
- radiation-monitor-agent
- prometheus-node-exporter
state: present
- name: Configure radiation monitor
ansible.builtin.template:
src: rad-monitor.conf.j2
dest: /etc/radiation-monitor/config.yml
notify: Restart radiation monitor
- name: Deploy alert thresholds
ansible.builtin.template:
src: rad-thresholds.yml.j2
dest: /etc/radiation-monitor/thresholds.yml
- name: Configure data retention (regulatory requirement)
ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
path: /etc/radiation-monitor/config.yml
line: "retention_years: 75"
- name: Start monitoring service
ansible.builtin.service:
name: radiation-monitor
state: started
enabled: true
- name: Verify data collection
ansible.builtin.uri:
url: http://localhost:9100/metrics
register: metrics
until: "'radiation_dose_rate' in metrics.content"
retries: 10
delay: 5
handlers:
- name: Restart radiation monitor
ansible.builtin.service:
name: radiation-monitor
state: restarted
SCADA/DCS Security Hardening
- name: Harden nuclear SCADA systems
hosts: scada_systems
become: true
tasks:
- name: Enforce network segmentation (NEI 08-09)
ansible.builtin.iptables:
chain: INPUT
source: "{{ item }}"
jump: DROP
comment: "Block non-OT network access"
loop: "{{ blocked_networks }}"
- name: Allow only approved OT protocols
ansible.builtin.iptables:
chain: INPUT
protocol: tcp
destination_port: "{{ item.port }}"
source: "{{ ot_network }}"
jump: ACCEPT
comment: "Allow {{ item.name }}"
loop:
- { port: 502, name: "Modbus TCP" }
- { port: 4840, name: "OPC-UA" }
- { port: 20000, name: "DNP3" }
- name: Disable unnecessary services
ansible.builtin.service:
name: "{{ item }}"
state: stopped
enabled: false
loop:
- bluetooth
- cups
- avahi-daemon
- nfs-server
ignore_errors: true
- name: Enforce USB device restrictions
ansible.builtin.copy:
content: |
# Block all USB storage devices
blacklist usb-storage
blacklist uas
dest: /etc/modprobe.d/usb-storage-block.conf
- name: Configure audit logging (NRC requirement)
ansible.builtin.template:
src: nuclear-audit.rules.j2
dest: /etc/audit/rules.d/nuclear.rules
notify: Restart auditd
- name: Deploy integrity monitoring
ansible.builtin.template:
src: aide-nuclear.conf.j2
dest: /etc/aide/aide.conf
notify: Initialize AIDE
handlers:
- name: Restart auditd
ansible.builtin.service:
name: auditd
state: restarted
- name: Initialize AIDE
ansible.builtin.command: aide --init
Plant Information System
- name: Deploy plant information system
hosts: plant_info_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Deploy time-series database
community.docker.docker_container:
name: plant-tsdb
image: timescale/timescaledb-ha:pg16
state: started
restart_policy: unless-stopped
ports: ["5432:5432"]
volumes:
- /data/plant-tsdb:/var/lib/postgresql/data
env:
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "{{ vault_db_password }}"
shm_size: 4G
no_log: true
- name: Deploy data historian
community.docker.docker_container:
name: plant-historian
image: "{{ historian_image }}"
state: started
ports: ["8080:8080"]
env:
DB_URL: "postgresql://plant:{{ vault_db_password }}@localhost:5432/plant_data"
RETENTION_YEARS: "75"
SAMPLING_RATE_MS: "100"
- name: Deploy plant dashboard
community.docker.docker_container:
name: plant-grafana
image: grafana/grafana:latest
state: started
ports: ["3000:3000"]
volumes:
- /opt/grafana/dashboards:/var/lib/grafana/dashboards
NRC Compliance Automation
- name: NRC compliance reporting
hosts: compliance_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Generate daily radiation report
ansible.builtin.cron:
name: "NRC daily radiation report"
hour: "23"
minute: "55"
job: >
/opt/compliance/generate-report.py
--type daily_radiation
--format nrc-reg-guide-8.34
--output /data/reports/rad-$(date +%Y%m%d).pdf
>> /var/log/compliance.log 2>&1
- name: Generate quarterly environmental report
ansible.builtin.cron:
name: "NRC quarterly environmental"
month: "1,4,7,10"
day: "1"
hour: "6"
job: >
/opt/compliance/generate-report.py
--type quarterly_environmental
--format nrc-reg-guide-4.15
--output /data/reports/env-q$(date +%q-%Y).pdf
- name: Verify report retention
ansible.builtin.find:
paths: /data/reports
age: "-1d"
patterns: "*.pdf"
register: recent_reports
- name: Alert if daily report missing
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: "⚠️ No compliance report generated in last 24h"
when: recent_reports.files | length == 0
- name: Backup reports to offsite storage
ansible.builtin.cron:
name: "Offsite report backup"
hour: "2"
minute: "0"
job: >
rsync -az /data/reports/
{{ offsite_backup_host }}:/backup/nuclear-reports/
>> /var/log/report-backup.log 2>&1
Emergency System Configuration
- name: Configure emergency notification system
hosts: safety_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Deploy emergency notification service
ansible.builtin.template:
src: emergency-notify.conf.j2
dest: /etc/emergency-notify/config.yml
notify: Restart emergency service
- name: Test emergency communication channels
ansible.builtin.uri:
url: "http://localhost:8090/api/test"
method: POST
body_format: json
body:
test: true
channels: [siren, pager, sms, email]
register: test_result
- name: Verify all channels operational
ansible.builtin.assert:
that:
- test_result.json.all_channels_ok == true
fail_msg: "Emergency channels NOT fully operational!"
- name: Schedule weekly emergency system test
ansible.builtin.cron:
name: "Weekly emergency system test"
weekday: "1"
hour: "10"
minute: "0"
job: "/opt/safety/test-emergency-systems.sh >> /var/log/emergency-test.log 2>&1"
Related Articles
- Ansible Autonomous Industrial
- Ansible Preemptive Cybersecurity
- Ansible Compliance as Code
- Ansible cron Module
Conclusion
Nuclear IT infrastructure in 2026 — especially for SMRs — demands the highest standards of reliability, security, and compliance automation. Ansible manages radiation monitoring networks with 75-year data retention, hardens SCADA systems per NEI 08-09 with USB blocking and strict network segmentation, automates NRC compliance reporting, and validates emergency communication systems. The key principle: nuclear IT configuration must be declarative, auditable, and reproducible — exactly what Ansible provides. As SMR deployments accelerate worldwide, this infrastructure automation becomes critical infrastructure itself.