Oak Ridge National Laboratory operates three leadership-class computing facilities and multiple nuclear research reactors - infrastructure that makes it a high-value target for state-sponsored adversaries and a proving ground for operational security at scale. Founded in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the lab now runs the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the Spallation Neutron Source, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, all of which draw thousands of external researchers annually. The threat model is straightforward: adversaries want access to exascale computing resources, nuclear research data, and the intellectual property flowing through user facilities that host scientists from over 70 nations.
The security perimeter spans physical and digital domains - HPC architectures running at exascale, operational technology controlling reactors and neutron sources, and data pipelines connecting eight major research divisions covering everything from isotope production to computational fluid dynamics. The lab's tech stack includes Palo Alto and Cisco network infrastructure alongside specialized scientific computing environments built on MATLAB, Simulink, and machine learning frameworks. With more than 7,000 staff and a constant flow of visiting researchers, identity and access management isn't theoretical - it's the daily work of protecting classified national security research while enabling open scientific collaboration.
ORNL sits on a 32,000-acre site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, operating as the Department of Energy's largest multi-program laboratory. The scale creates complexity: securing user facilities that must remain accessible to legitimate researchers while defending against sophisticated intrusion attempts, all within a regulatory environment that includes both open science mandates and national security classification requirements.
