The U.S. Needs A Nuke/"Dirty Bomb" Recovery Plan
U.S. Needs to Develop Nuke, "Dirty Bomb" Recovery Plan, GAO Finds -- Global Security Newswire
The U.S. Homeland Security Department has not met an executive mandate to produce a national recovery plan to deal with the lingering effects of a terrorist assault involving a radiological "dirty bomb" or a crude nuclear device, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Friday (see GSN, Jan. 25).
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, "the DHS agency responsible for developing a comprehensive emergency management system, has not developed a national disaster recovery strategy, as required by law, or issued specific guidance to coordinate federal, state, and local government recovery planning for" radiological dispersal device or improvised nuclear device events, "as directed by executive guidance," the report finds.
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You would think that after all of this time .... there would be a basic plan to confront such a nuclear disaster.
I guess our leaders do not want to spend time on the unimaginable.
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100301_9173.php
Reflections from news and commentary of the day
A proper engineering plan for the full decontamination of San Francisco from fallout (including human resources needed, fuel needed, water needed, etc.) was detailed on pages 316-318 of the Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 85th Congress, First Session on The Nature of Radioactive Fallout and Its Effects on Man, May 27 to June 3, 1957, Part I.
ReplyDeleteThere are many plans for fallout decontamination from studies at nuclear weapon tests in the 1950s, the earliest being the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory manual NAVDOCKS TP-PL-13, Radiological Recovery of Fixed Military Installations, first published in 1953 and updated in 1958. Land surface burst fallout from the 1951 low yield (kiloton) surface burst Sugar in Nevada is described in J. C. Maloney, Decontamination of Paved Areas, U.S. nuclear weapons tests report WT-400, 1952, Ch. 5. You can sweep up the fallout, hose it down drains, and so on just like normal dirt. Dr Carl F. Miller carried out decontamination research at U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory and in 1963 wrote a massive report at Stanford Research Institute, Fallout and Radiological COuntermeasures.
"Back in the Day" :-), we did REAL testing and training for this time of event.
ReplyDeleteI went through the radiological response training at Nevada Test Site back in the early 1980's. Not simulated - played softball in the Summer sun in a plutonium-laden spot (in breathing apparatus and double anti-c clothing) to get familiar with wearing the equipment and developing some self-confidence.
Later, we moved up to cleaning up some of the contamination left in/on the tanks, cars, houses, etc. from the old above-ground tests that you see videos of.
We knew how to do it then. They (the Feds) need to STOP paying for research grants, find some of the old tech reports on the subject, and do some serious planning and training.
While they are at it, for God's sake, buy some new RADEF sets! We DON'T need $10,000 instruments -- +/- 20% is plenty accurate for the purpose. Simple and rugged is better than expensive and good to three significant digits...
- Old State RADEF Officer