The REP Program coordinates the National effort to provide state, local, and tribal governments with relevant and executable planning, training, and exercise guidance and policies necessary to ensure that adequate capabilities exist to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from incidents involving commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs).
Latest Updates
- FAQ Update
- Hostile Action Based (HAB) Drills
- New Alert and Notification Systems Page
- Evaluation Schedule Update
- REP State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Stakeholders
REP Program Manual
Please be advised that the RPM Integrated Project Team (IPT) has determined that there are no issues that require a July 2016 update to the Manual. In addition, the frequency cycle for future updates of the Manual are under review by the team and the upcoming changes to the NUREG-0654/REP-1, Rev. 2 guidance documents is being considered. Once consensus is reached, the update cycle frequency will be disseminated to THD staff and stakeholders at a later date. The FAQ and Consistency Committees continue to be available for response to issues requiring more immediate attention.
Library
The REPP Document Library contains Regulation, Policy and Guidance for the REP Program, inluding the recently updated REP Program Manual (RPM), Frequently Asked Questions and additional support documents. As soon as older documents are converted to digital versions and meet 508 Compliance standards, we will post them to our document library for public access.
Training
FEMA's Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program in partnership with the Center for Domestic Preparedness and the Emergency Management Institute provides hazardous materials training for HAZMAT techs to keep responders apprised of the latest techniques and tools to respond safely.
- Training Courses and Calendar (Updated February 2015)
History
The NRC is responsible for emergency preparedness at the Nation’s commercial NPPs. Following the March 1979 Three Mile Island accident, Executive Order 12148 and the Presidential Directive of December 7, 1979 transferred the federal lead role in offsite emergency planning and preparedness activities from the NRC to FEMA. This assignment aligned with FEMA’s statutory role in promoting, funding, coordinating, and providing technical assistance for disaster preparedness, as defined in Section 201 of the Disaster Relief Act of 1974.2.
FEMA established the REP Program to manage its responsibility for ORO emergency planning and preparedness in areas around commercial NPPs. The NRC retained responsibility for onsite activities. The NRC Authorization Acts of 1980 (Pub.L. 96-295) and 1982-1983 (Pub.L. 97-415) directed the NRC to establish emergency preparedness as a criterion for licensing commercial NPPs.
Specifically, the NRC Authorization Acts prohibit the NRC from issuing an operating license for an NPP unless it finds that “there exists a state, local, or utility plan which 2 42 USC 5131, as amended by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law (Pub.L.)100-707, 102 Stat. 4689 (1988). This Act constitutes the statutory authority for most federal disaster response activities, especially as they pertain to FEMA and FEMA programs. 44 CFR Part 352 allows for the submission of offsite emergency response plans/procedures by a licensee in those instances where OROs, either individually or together, decline or fail to prepare commercial NPP offsite radiological emergency preparedness plans/procedures that are sufficient to satisfy NRC licensing requirements provides reasonable assurance that public health and safety is not endangered by operation of the facility concerned.”
The acts also provides for the NRC to consult FEMA in developing standards for evaluating plans/procedures and in making individual determinations that the plans/procedures provide reasonable assurance for protecting public health and safety.
The NRC revised its regulations in 10 CFR Part 50 to incorporate additional emergency preparedness requirements, including 16 Planning Standards for onsite and offsite emergency response plans/procedures.
In 1980, the NRC and FEMA jointly issued NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1 to provide onsite and offsite planning guidance to protect public health and safety in the event of an incident at an NPP. This document includes the 16 Planning Standards and associated Evaluation Criteria for assessing whether the licensee and the affected OROs have plans/procedures in place that provide a reasonable assurance that adequate protective measures can and will be taken.
FEMA regulations in 44 CFR Part 350 address the review and approval of ORO emergency plans/procedures for responding to radiological emergencies at commercial NPPs. These regulations also include the 16 Planning Standards and incorporate by reference the joint NRC-FEMA guidance document NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1.
Additional Information
Additional information includes contacts, policies, Websites and lessons learned.