Experts Question U.S. Nuclear Terror Readiness

The United States has spent more than $300 billion on homeland security under the Bush administration, but experts say the nation is not ready to respond to an act of nuclear terrorism, McClatchy Newspapers reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 14).

“I don’t see money being focused on actual response and mitigation to a nuclear threat,” said Col. Jill Morgenthaler, Illinois homeland security director.

Among the weaknesses are:

— Absence of a government education campaign on how to shield against radiation from nuclear fallout;

— The likelihood that many of the estimated 300,000 emergency personnel needed to respond to a nuclear strike would avoid the disaster area due to radiation fears;

— Inability of hospital emergency rooms to handle a sudden rush of patients;

— Inadequate numbers of available burn-unit beds in most cities, even though there could be tens of thousands of burn victims following an attack; and

— The government’s failure to date to acquire significant new drugs for counteracting the effects of radiation on bone marrow.

A 10-kiloton improvised nuclear device could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, according to the federal National Planning Scenario.

The government has studied all forms of radiation-based strikes, from full nuclear weapons to radiological “dirty bombs” (see GSN, Feb. 20, 2007).  A number of federal agencies have conducted some nuclear strike planning.  The Homeland Security Department posted a Web site with instructions on treating radiation patients, while the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could quickly create a computer model of the path of radioactive fallout to help guide warnings on evacuations and sheltering.

Experts and government documents highlight the large potential for chaos following a strike, ranging from damaged bridges and tunnels to roads filled with vehicles that crashed when their drivers were blinded by an atomic blast.

There is no equipment to protect rescue personnel from radiation as they approach the blast site, or to aid survivors as they seek to escape, McClatchy reported.  Hundreds more radiation meters are needed to help troops avoid overexposure.

“We are concerned about the catastrophic threats and are trying to improve our abilities for disasters.  But you have to look at what’s pragmatic as well,” said Gerald Parker, deputy assistant secretary in the Health and Human Services Department’s Preparedness and Response Office.

“People are just very intimidated to take on the problem” because “there may not be apparent solutions right now,” said Andrew Garrett of the Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University (Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers, March 1).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.