For programmatic reasons, ARL's work in this area is
divided into three pieces corresponding to before-event
preparation, during-event response,
and post-event assessment.
Emergency Preparation
ARL
serves as a provider of meteorological and air pollution
guidance to other agencies involved in the planning process
related to technological disasters. In general, the question
addressed is "What will happen if . . . And what should
be done?" The goal is to plan response activities
to minimize risk and damage, and to help assess risk in
time to avoid dangerous situations. In this regard, ARL
works with many government agencies (including EPA, NRC, NASA,
DOD, DOE, DOT,
DHS, FBI)
involved in the use or atmospheric transport of hazardous
materials.
The scales involved are from local to continental, with
some activities stretching to global. Of special relevance
is the ARL specialization in the short-range dispersion
of pollutants, especially heavy gases which tend to be
greatly influenced by terrain and atmospheric stability.
Several ARL groups (Research Triangle Park, Idaho
Falls, Las Vegas)are
actively involved in research on the dispersion and transportof
heavy gases released near the surface. ARL figures prominently
in the management and operation of the Hazmat Spill Test
Facility located on the Nevada
Test Site of the Department of Energy, near Las Vegas,
NV.
In particular, ARL specializes in the provision of dispersion
and possible exposure guidance to assist in planning responses
by other agencies:
- to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission at their Washington DC Headquarters,
related to power reactor accidents
- to the Department of Homeland
Security/FEMA related to terrorist incidents
- to the Department of Energy at their Idaho
Falls, Las
Vegas, and Oak
Ridge locations, related to safety of handling
and testing nuclear materials
- to the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) and to the
Federal Radiological
Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) program
at Las Vegas,
related to the response to nuclear emergencies
- to the Department of
Energy in Las
Vegas, related to the need to maintain a capability
to conduct experiments with nuclear materials
- to the agencies leading the Interagency Nuclear Safety
Review Panel (NASA, DOD, DOE, NRC, and EPA), related
to the launching of radioactive payloads on space vehicles
from the USA and Russia
- and to DOE field offices concerned with the health
and safety of on-site employees and the general public.
In all of these cases,
ARL capabilities are likely to be exercised if an incident
actually occurs.
Emergency Response
ARL provides real-time forecasts that are specially tailored
to assist in the management of emergencies following nuclear
and volcanic disasters that inject material into the atmosphere.
The same capabilities have been employed extensively in
other situations, notably in the context of the oil
fire smoke situation following the Gulf War. ARL capabilities
are coupled with those of the NOAA National
Centers for Environmental Prediction, which serves
as the round-the-clock mechanism for assuring adequate
NOAA response in the event of an accident. The ARL role
is to provide the best available products for use in this
coupled emergency response service, and to interact with
other agencies as necessary to address special needs.
ARL
products are especially relevant in the management of nuclear
emergencies arising from the unexpected release of radioactivity
into the air, whether from (a) a commercial nuclear power
reactor, (b) a terrorist incident, (c) a military accident,
(d) a test or accident at a site under the jurisdiction
of the Department of Energy, or (e) a test prohibited under
the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty.
At the international level, ARL and NCEP serve as a Regional
Specialized Meteorological Center of the World Meteorological
Organization, one of five such centers spread around
the world. The U.S. and
Canadian RSMCs
act in close coordination, and conduct regular comparisons of
forecast products to ensure that these two groups can
serve as a team in the event of an actual accident requiring
international attention.
Relevant Links
Emergency Assessment
The
Regional Specialized Meteorological Center discussed above
is designed to provide warning capabilities for nuclear
accidents. The same modeling capabilities are applicable
to atmospheric hazardous materials of all kinds. Of special
interest are chemicals with long-term accumulated ("chronic")
consequences, such as potential mutagens and teratagens.
In this case, the need is for assessment of long-term impact
rather than for short-term forecasting. The relevant ARL
activity is, therefore, distributed among several groups.
At Research Triangle
Park, the current focus is on airborne particles, persistent
organic pollutants, trace metals, endocrine disrupters,
and other substances that jeopardize health and ecosystems.
This aspect of the ARL Emergency Preparedness activity
is described in detail among the documents assembled under
the Weather and Air Quality theme.
This is an example of how the elements of the ARL scientific
program are not clearly pigeon-holed into neat thematic
bins. Instead, the growth of scientific understanding and
the requirements of policy and regulatory communities dictate
programmatic development, some of which can clearly be
related to assessment of emergencies, and some of which
is clearly more related to Air Quality.
ARL capabilities have been directly involved in the post-event
assessment of the consequences of several disasters, each
in collaboration with other agencies.
|