Essential Elements

For the purpose of this "Physical Protection Program" order essential element is used in the context of physical protection equipment e.g. physical protection system elements necessary for the initiation of a timely response, the failure of any one of which would result in protection effectiveness being significantly reduced.

Protection and assurance elements necessary for the overall success of the S&S program at a facility or site, the failure of any one of which would result in protection effectiveness being significantly reduced; which would require performance of other elements to be significantly better than expected to mitigate the failure; or create an unaccepted increase in security risk. Essential elements can include but are not limited to equipment, procedures, and personnel. Compliance-based programs, such as CMPC, Human Reliability Program, and OPSEC, are also considered a primary method by which certain risks are addressed and may be considered essential elements.