RDD Emergency Response Decision Support

T.P. Taylor; B.A. Simpson; and D.E. Dale (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

In the event of a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) terrorist attack emergency responders (ERs) need a standardized set of decision-making tools. These tools would assist personnel in making rapid, protective action decisions for responders and the public, and help avoid conflicting response information between agencies. The RDD ER Decision Support System is providing a "toolbox" for decision-making based on consensus implementation of science principals and technology methods for use in an emergency. The toolbox will include integrated guidance with capabilities to: assess situations to determine if radiological materials are present; triage the affected population for traumatic injuries and radiation exposure; access information and technologies to allow for rapid detection and identification; evaluate particulate dispersion patterns; and recommend deployment of appropriate treatment, isolation, stabilization and containment technologies. Tools and guidance will be integrated through cooperative participation of: Los Alamos, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, and Brookhaven National Laboratories; the Environmental Measurements Laboratory; and federal agencies. A partnership has been established with the multi-agency Operational Guidelines Task Group (OGT), whereby Operational Guidelines and associated tools under development by the OGT for consequence management of an RDD are being coordinated through this project for potential integration into the decision-making toolbox. The information gathered from this systems approach to response and consequence management provides the architecture for integrating radiological ER preparedness and consequence management information into a single comprehensive system. The "user system" will ultimately become an interactive website that DHS can make available to the general public, media, emergency responders, decision makers, and policy makers. User communities will be able to navigate the site to produce materials for training purposes, education, and ER preparedness. The system will provide capabilities to help responders view response as a continuum, rather than from their traditional role as emergency responders, to facilitate and merge the resources and responders in subsequent response phases.

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