Attacks on power plants, electric grids, refineries, transportation networks and water treatment systems present an even greater threat.
These governments have to take a leaf out of China's book and build power plants, electricity grids, roads, railways and ports.
Bechtel's contract calls for repairing and rehabilitating things like power plants, electrical grids, water and sewage systems, airports and a seaport.
They have targeted major companies and military contractors; last year there were 200 attacks on vital infrastructure — power plants, electric grids, refineries, transportation networks and water treatment systems.
This is scary because these Siemens controllers play a critical role in virtually every industrialised plant in the world, including water treatment plants, electricity grids and oil refineries, and nuclear reprocessing facilities.
The networks that control power plants, national grids and reservoirs rely heavily on obscurity to defend against attack: they aren't directly connected to the internet, and use arcane coding.
From the Indus to the Urals, the Mississippi to the Amazon, governments either built and ran these vast plants and grids themselves, or granted exclusive rights to private utilities within specified territories.
As you pointed out, Russia has developed small floating reactors to deliver energy to the Arctic regions, primarily to overcome the problem of building power plants and grids on unstable permafrost.
The simplicity and scalability of small reactors makes them an ideal energy source where future demand is uncertain and investment in larger plants and grids is simply not viable.But you passed over the one big area where small reactors can perhaps make the greatest contribution: the developing world.
Analysts at IHS Cera say that European utilities need to spend a combined €1 trillion on new infrastructure like power plants, electricity grids and natural gas storage by the end of the decade just to maintain the current levels of gas and electricity supply.
