Nuclear Terrorism And National Preparedness

The nuclear crisis in Fukushima and growing threats of nuclear terrorism must serve as a wake-up call, prompting greater action to prepare ourselves for nuclear and radiological disasters. Our strategy to prepare for these threats is multi-layered and the events of these past years have proved the necessity to re-evaluate the national and international preparedness goals on a scale never before considered. The programme of NATO Advanced Research Workshop on “Preparedness for Nuclear and Radiological Threats” has been focused on science and technology challenges associated with our need to improve the national and international capacity and capability to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from the nuclear and radiological disasters, including nuclear and radiological accident, terrorist attack by Improvised Nuclear Device (IND) or by “Dirty Bomb”-Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), that pose the greatest risk to the national and international security and safety.

A nuclear attack on a large U.S. city by terrorists-even with a low-yield improvised nuclear device (IND) of 10 kilotons or less-would cause a large number of deaths and severe injuries. The large number of injured from the detonation and radioactive fallout that would follow would be overwhelming for local emergency response and health care systems to rescue and treat, even assuming that these systems and their personnel were not themselves incapacitated by the event. The United States has been struggling for some time to address and plan for the threat of nuclear terrorism and other weapons of mass destruction that terrorists might obtain and use. The Department of Homeland Security recently contracted with the Institute of Medicine to hold a workshop, summarized in this volume, to assess medical preparedness for a nuclear detonation of up to 10 kilotons. This book provides a candid and sobering look at our current state of preparedness for an IND, and identifies several key areas in which we might begin to focus our national efforts in a way that will improve the overall level of preparedness.

A terrorist¿s use of a radiological dispersal device (RDD) or improvised nuclear device (IND) to release radioactive materials (RM) into the environ. could have devastating consequences. This testimony examines: (1) the extent to which fed. agencies are planning to fulfill their responsibilities to assist cities and their states in cleaning up areas contaminated with RM from RDD and IND incidents; (2) what is known about the fed. government¿s capability to effectively cleanup areas contaminated with RM from RDD and IND incidents; and (3) suggestions from gov¿t. emerg. mgmt. officials on ways to improve fed. preparedness to provide assistance to recover from RDD and IND incidents. Also discusses the situation in the United Kingdom.

Our nation faces the distinct possibility of a catastrophic terrorist attack using an improvised nuclear device (IND), according to international and U.S. intelligence. Detonation of an IND in a major U.S. city would result in tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of victims and would overwhelm public health, emergency response, and health care systems, not to mention creating unprecedented social and economic challenges. While preparing for an IND may seem futile at first glance, thousands of lives can be saved by informed planning and decision making prior to and following an attack. In 2009, the Institute of Medicine published the proceedings of a workshop assessing the health and medical preparedness for responding to an IND detonation. Since that time, multiple federal and other publications have added layers of detail to this conceptual framework, resulting in a significant body of literature and guidance. However, there has been only limited planning effort at the local level as much of the federal guidance has not been translated into action for states, cities and counties. According to an informal survey of community preparedness by the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO), planning for a radiation incident ranked lowest in priority among other hazards by 2,800 local health departments. The focus of Nationwide Response Issues After an Improvised Nuclear Device Attack: Medical and Public Health Considerations for Neighboring Jurisdictions: Workshop Summary is on key response requirements faced by public health and health care systems in response to an IND detonation, especially those planning needs of outlying state and local jurisdictions from the detonation site. The specific meeting objectives were as follows: - Understand the differences between types of radiation incidents and implications of an IND attack on outlying communities. -Highlight current planning efforts at the federal, state, and local level as well as challenges to the implementation of operational plans. -Examine gaps in planning efforts and possible challenges and solutions. -Identify considerations for public health reception centers: how public health and health care interface with functions and staffing and how radiological assessments and triage be handled. -Discuss the possibilities and benefits of integration of disaster transport systems. -Explore roles of regional health care coalitions in coordination of health care response.

Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. This report adopts a scenario-driven approach that provides a rigorous way to identify actions-linked specifically to terrorist attacks-individuals can take to protect their health and safety. The result is an individual's strategy across four types of terrorist attacks-chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological-consisting of overarching goals and simple and directive response and preparatory actions. The actions are appropriate regardless of likelihood of an attack, scale of attack, or government alert level; designed to be sensitive to potential variations; and defined in terms of simple rules that should be easy for individuals to adopt.

Combating Nuclear Terrorism: Preliminary Observations on Preparedness to Recover from Possible Attacks Using Radiological or Nuclear Materials

This book provides guidance on measures that should be considered to protect human lives from terrorist activities involving nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. It provides a historical summary of the development and use of these weapons, and continues with a detailed discussion of the types of radiation and warfare agents that are available, including methods for dispersing them. The text also analyzes human exposure to radiation or chemical and biological agents, along with treatment methods that are available to treat exposed individuals. The authors provide an exploratory look at emergency preparedness measures that can be enacted to mitigate future emergencies, including training techniques and strategies.