170
15 Initial Emergency Response Efforts
(UAVs, also called drones), or a combination of the above. The primary objectives
of mapping the Hot Zone are to identify local hot spots in which radiation dose rates
are high enough to potentially pose a risk to those working in those areas, to quantify
general area radiation dose rates in the area, and to help determine low-dose ingress
and egress paths for both responders and for members of the public when they are
evacuated from the area.
It is important to recognize that local hot spots can represent more than a potential
health risk; localized hot spots are places where radioactive sources, or pieces of
radioactive sources might have landed or locations with high levels of contamination
that might pose a resuspension and inhalation concern in windy conditions.
As these surveys are conducted the information must be recorded and transmitted to a central location so that it is available to the Incident Commander, public
health officials, various affected agencies, and the elected and appointed officials
with overall responsibility for responding to the event. There are several radiation
instrumentation companies that have written software that will do this with data from
their own instruments; some will incorporate information from any instruments that
output data consistent with a standard protocol such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard N42.42 (Data format standard for radiation detectors used for Homeland Security) [1]. In addition, various governmental agencies
maintain software mapping systems that can be used to share information among all
agencies at all levels of government that have been given access to this information.
15.2 Managing the Scene
There are two huge management challenges in the aftermath of a radiological or
nuclear attack, managing the scene of the attack and managing the city as a whole.
Managing the city as a whole in the aftermath of a nuclear attack is likely to be
substantially different than managing the city in the aftermath of a radiological attack;
for this reason managing the city as a whole will be deferred until Chap. 19 (Figs. 15.2
and 15.3).
Managing the scene of the attack will be the responsibility of the Incident
Commander (under the American Incident Command System, or ICS) or the equivalent in other nations [13]. In the American system the Incident Commander will make
use of their Command Staff, a team of subordinates, each with expertise in different
areas such as Hazardous Materials, Health and Safety, Logistics, Investigations, and
so forth. The ICS is designed to scale to the size and needs of the incident so that
a small-scale incident might be managed without the need for a Command Staff, a
simple fire might not require dealing with the risks posed by hazardous materials,
and so forth.
A comprehensive discussion of managing the scene would require a book and,
in fact, there are several book-length planning documents that have been developed
by a number of nations and even several major cities. That being the case, a briefer
discussion will have to suffice and we will touch upon matters of, health and safety,
15 Initial Emergency Response Efforts
(UAVs, also called drones), or a combination of the above. The primary objectives
of mapping the Hot Zone are to identify local hot spots in which radiation dose rates
are high enough to potentially pose a risk to those working in those areas, to quantify
general area radiation dose rates in the area, and to help determine low-dose ingress
and egress paths for both responders and for members of the public when they are
evacuated from the area.
It is important to recognize that local hot spots can represent more than a potential
health risk; localized hot spots are places where radioactive sources, or pieces of
radioactive sources might have landed or locations with high levels of contamination
that might pose a resuspension and inhalation concern in windy conditions.
As these surveys are conducted the information must be recorded and transmitted to a central location so that it is available to the Incident Commander, public
health officials, various affected agencies, and the elected and appointed officials
with overall responsibility for responding to the event. There are several radiation
instrumentation companies that have written software that will do this with data from
their own instruments; some will incorporate information from any instruments that
output data consistent with a standard protocol such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard N42.42 (Data format standard for radiation detectors used for Homeland Security) [1]. In addition, various governmental agencies
maintain software mapping systems that can be used to share information among all
agencies at all levels of government that have been given access to this information.
15.2 Managing the Scene
There are two huge management challenges in the aftermath of a radiological or
nuclear attack, managing the scene of the attack and managing the city as a whole.
Managing the city as a whole in the aftermath of a nuclear attack is likely to be
substantially different than managing the city in the aftermath of a radiological attack;
for this reason managing the city as a whole will be deferred until Chap. 19 (Figs. 15.2
and 15.3).
Managing the scene of the attack will be the responsibility of the Incident
Commander (under the American Incident Command System, or ICS) or the equivalent in other nations [13]. In the American system the Incident Commander will make
use of their Command Staff, a team of subordinates, each with expertise in different
areas such as Hazardous Materials, Health and Safety, Logistics, Investigations, and
so forth. The ICS is designed to scale to the size and needs of the incident so that
a small-scale incident might be managed without the need for a Command Staff, a
simple fire might not require dealing with the risks posed by hazardous materials,
and so forth.
A comprehensive discussion of managing the scene would require a book and,
in fact, there are several book-length planning documents that have been developed
by a number of nations and even several major cities. That being the case, a briefer
discussion will have to suffice and we will touch upon matters of, health and safety,