Combating Nuclear Terrorism: Actions Needed to Better Prepare to Recover from Possible Attacks Using Radiological or Nuclear Materials
Abstract
FEMA, the DHS agency responsible for developing a comprehensive emergency management system, has not developed a national disaster recovery strategy, as required by law, or issued specific guidance to coordinate federal, state, and local government recovery planning for RDD and IND incidents, as directed by executive guidance. To date, most federal attention has been given to developing a response framework, with less attention to recovery. Responding to an attack would involve evacuations and providing treatment to those injured; recovering from an attack would include cleaning up the radioactive contamination to permit people to return to their homes and businesses. Existing federal guidance provides limited direction for federal, state, and local agencies to develop recovery plans and to conduct exercises to test recovery preparedness. Of the over 90 RDD and IND exercises to test response capabilities in the last 6 years, only 3 included a recovery component. GAOs survey found that almost all 13 cities and most states believe they would need to rely heavily on the federal government to conduct and fund analysis and environmental cleanup activities. However, city and state officials were inconsistent in views on which federal agencies to turn to for help, which could hamper the recovery effort.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- AD1179736
Entities
People
- Gene Aloise
- James Espinoza
- Jay Smale
- Keo Vongvanith
- Nancy Crothers
- Ned Woodward
- Thomas Laetz
- Timothy Persons
- Tracey King
- Vasiliki Theodoropoulos
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office