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U.S. Not Prepared for Nuclear Terrorism, Experts Say
The U.S. government has failed to prepare for a nuclear terrorist attack, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, March 22). For example, limited numbers of first responders have been trained to rapidly evacuate people downwind of a radiation cloud, according to public health specialists and government documents. “The United States is, at the moment, not well prepared to manage an [emergency] evacuation of this sort in the relevant time frame,” said Richard Falkenrath, former deputy homeland security adviser. “The federal government currently lacks the ability to [rapidly] generate and broadcast specific, geographically tailored evacuation instructions” across the country. The White House’s Homeland Security Council and the Energy Department both produced reports, obtained by the Post, detailing the effects of a terrorist nuclear strike on Washington. U.S. officials are in the early stages of planning strategies to communicate with endangered downwind communities, according to the Post. The Homeland Security's Web site, Ready.gov, also offers questionable information, experts said. A graphic indicates a person in the immediate vicinity of a nuclear blast could seek protection by going around a corner. “Ready.gov treats a nuclear weapon in this case as if it were a big truck bomb, which it’s not,” said Ivan Oelrich, a physicist at the Federation of American Scientists. “There’s no information in Ready.gov that would help your chances” of surviving a nuclear explosion or the resulting fallout, he said. While they acknowledge much work remains to prepare for nuclear terrorism, Homeland Security officials say progress has been made. “A lot of good work’s been done, and a lot of federal resources are poised to respond,” said Gil Jamieson, who helps run the department’s programs to coordinate emergency response efforts. “Can more work be done? Absolutely.” Another report, completed in 2003 by the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, says the government lacks rules for dispatching first responders to radiated areas. The potential for a nuclear attack “requires a fundamental shift in radiological protection policy for members of the public and emergency responders,” the report says. Progress in these areas has only started, officials said (John Mintz, Washington Post, May 3).
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