Title: EPA's Radiological and Nuclear Emergency Response Program
1EPA's Radiological and Nuclear Emergency Response
Program
June 18, 2009Presented byRonald Fraass, Lab
DirectorNational Air and Radiation Environmental
Laboratory
2EPAs Role in Terrorist Incidents
- Pre-release
- Support the DHS and the FBI in threat credibility
assessment - Can pre-deploy at Nationally Significant Special
Events (NSSEs) or on Domestic Emergency Support
Team (DEST) - Incident-specific
- Post-release
- Forensic assets assist in evidence collection
- Emergency response assets respond to consequences
of incident at the tactical level - Clean-up efforts
3Consequences Response Role
- Provide overall response coordination
(NRF/ESF10) emergency response
management/support to federal, state, tribal, and
local governments - Perform and coordinate radiological monitoring
and assessment - Develop Protective Action Guides (PAGs)
- Provide Special Teams emergency response
radiological expertise and support under the NCP
and also as NIRT members if requested by FEMA - Serve as Coordinating Agency under the NRFs
Nuclear/Radiological Incident Annex in some
circumstances
4US EPAs SPECIAL TEAMS Working Together to
Support National
Emergency Response
5EPA Response Assets
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- OSC Locations - National Labs
Centers ? - RERT Locations ? - ERT Locations ? -
NDT Location - NCERT
6Radiological Emergency Response Team (RERT)
Established in 1971
- Mission - leads or assists federal, state,
tribal, and local response efforts before,
during, and following a radiological incident - Focus Radiation monitoring evaluation
- Sampling / monitoring
- Lab analysis
- Hazard evaluation
- Characterization
- Clean-up decontamination
- Risk Assessment
- Waste disposal
7Environmental Response Team (ERT) Established in
1978
- Mission Support the nations response, cleanup
and renewal of its contaminated land, water and
air. - Focus classic environmental emergencies and
more - Characterization
- Sampling / monitoring
- Hazard evaluation
- Risk Assessment
- Health Safety
- Decon / disposal
8National Decontamination Team (NDT) Established
2003
- Mission to provide on-site scientific and
technical expertise in response to incidences of
national significance involving environmental
contamination and acts of terrorism related to
weapons of mass destruction. -
- Focus WMD agents
- Sampling
- Health and Safety
- Decontamination
- Waste Disposal
- Nature and extent of contamination
Buildings, infrastructure, indoor environments,
agriculture, environmental media
9National Counterterrorism Evidence Response Team
(NCERT) Established in 2001
- MISSION To provide specialized law enforcement
management of chemical, biological, radiological
and nuclear (CBRN) incidents - Focus provide special agents for crime scene
forensics and evidence collection in contaminated
zones
RNC 2004 NYC
RICIN INCIDENT DC
10Special Team Assets
- PERSONNEL
- Environmental Scientists
- Health Physicists
- Medical Officers
- Geologists
- Industrial Hygienists
- Toxicologists
- Chemists
- Biologists
- Engineers (Chem, Env, Civ, Nuc)
- Env Protection Specialists
- Special Agents Law Enforcement
11Special Team Assets
- Mobile Labs MERLS, TAGA, Phyllis, ASPECT, field
lab systems - Scanner Van/ERGS/Robots
- Real time Air Monitoring
- Mobile Command Posts/platforms
- Sampling and Monitoring equipment for
rad/chem/bio - Forensic sampling
- RadNet Fixed deployable monitors
- Fixed Labs Radiological and Mixed Waste
12National Radiation Monitoring
- EPA has upgraded its national radiation air
monitoring - because air is a likely pathway of exposure from
a terrorist incident - Previously known as the Environmental Radiation
Ambient Monitoring System (ERAMS) - Nationwide, continuously operating environmental
radiation monitoring system - Upgraded air monitoring to include both fixed and
deployable components - Air monitoring provides near real-time gamma
spectroscopy beta detection - Milk, precipitation, and drinking water also
routinely monitored - Helps decision-makers estimate the effects of
national scale radioactive releases on human
health and the environment - Developed system to meet data quality objectives
based on response timeline
13Fixed Monitor Systems
- Major Components
- Air Sampler
- Radiation Instruments
- Gamma Spectroscopy Beta Detectors transmit
data in near-real time - Data Processing Storing
- Data Telemetry4 options
14RadNet Fixed Air Monitors
15Deployable Monitors
- 40 deployable air monitors improve system
coverage around an incident or potential threat - Automatically transmit near-real-time external
exposure rate - Provide more flexible monitoring capability
- Include high and low volume air samplers and
simplified weather station
16Radiological Incident Response Challenges
- Maintaining radiation emergency response,
clean-up capabilities, and preparedness - Application of DHS guidance for establishing
cleanup levels - Practical planning and exercises to make this
approach viable and acceptable to affected state
and local officials - Expanding national laboratory operating capacity
for radionuclides - Processing and integrating massive incident data
- Ensuring that appropriate research is being
conducted to help support our radiological
clean-up mission - Transferring decontamination clean-up
technologies to urban environments - Integrating limited technical specialists into
national response