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Balancing personal and professional lives presents a challenge to all occupations, although working at a nuclear site poses additional risks owing to the presence of hazardous and valuable materials as well as sensitive information. Even where such material is not readily available onsite, the perception of its presence by outsiders may increase the risk to such organisations.
Inappropriate or illegal personal behaviours such as substance abuse may cause financial difficulties and increase the risk of unprofessional conduct at work. Such behaviours may also have reputational costs, or leave individuals susceptible to blackmail. Compromising situations might be spontaneous, but they may also be engineered through part of a ‘kompromat’ (compromising material) mission.
When working in sensitive sites, professional personal conduct may need to extend to family members, as these are also potentially exploitable by malicious actors. Professional conduct includes minimising social media posts and awareness of ‘social engineering’ whereby people are manipulated into giving sensitive information away or bypassing security measures.
Families may also pose kidnap risks and there are numerous examples where families have been held hostage in high-profile robberies. Indeed, in November 2015, following a raid on Islamist extremists, video surveillance footage of the home of a high-ranking official working at a Belgian nuclear facility was discovered. Police feared that Islamic State members were considering constructing a ‘dirty bomb’ – potentially gaining access by kidnapping either the researcher or his family.
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