Media Advisory

Commerce’s NIST to Brief Media in NYC on Progress of WTC Investigation

For Immediate Release: May 1, 2003

Contact:
Michael E. Newman
(301) 975-3025
michael.newman@nist.gov

For the second time since it began its technical building and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will brief the media on the progress of that effort.

NIST Director Arden Bement Jr. and WTC Lead Investigator Shyam Sunder will update the media on key aspects of the investigation and the overall NIST response plan to the WTC disaster. A progress report will be provided to attendees (available on the WTC investigation Web site, http://wtc.nist.gov, at 10 a.m. EDT on the day of the event). Topics to be discussed include:

• the status of efforts to identify and collect relevant data and materials;
• an interim report on the fireproofing of the WTC floor system;
• an update on fire model validation experiments and plans for fire testing the WTC floor system;
• a summary of the approach planned for assessing the most probable structural collapse sequence;
• the status of the analysis of the recovered WTC steel; and
• the status of the first-person data collection effort to study occupant behavior, evacuation and emergency response.

Sign-Up: For security reasons, all media—including production crew members—planning to attend the briefing in person must register by 3 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 6, 2003, by calling (301) 975-2762 or sending e-mail to media@nist.gov. Registered media must have proper credentials (a news media badge with photo or a photo ID with a business card) to enter the briefing room.

Phone/E-Mail Links: Reporters only who want to listen to the press conference via a toll-free telephone line should call (301) 975-2762 for call-in instructions in advance. The audio conference line will be suitable for recording actualities. A limited number of call-in spots will be available on a first-come first-served basis. Questions from offsite reporters may be e-mailed during the briefing to media@nist.gov for presentation—time permitting—during the question-and-answer period.

A comprehensive Web site on the NIST WTC investigation is at http://wtc.nist.gov.

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date created: 05/1/03
last update: 05/01/03
contact: inquiries@nist.gov