CRCPD E-43 Committee for Interagency Environmental Data Sharing and Communications Endorsed RadResponder Threshold Sets.

The Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) is a federal emergency response asset whose assistance may be requested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and state and local agencies to respond to a nuclear or radiological incident. It is an interagency organization with representation from the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other federal agencies. FRMAC, in its present form, was created in 1987 when the radiological support mission was assigned to the DOE’s Nevada Operations Office by DOE Headquarters. The FRMAC asset, including its predecessor entities, was created, grew, and evolved to function as a response to radiological incidents. Radiological emergency response exercises showed the need for a coordinated approach to managing federal emergency monitoring and assessment activities. The mission of FRMAC is to coordinate and manage all federal radiological environmental monitoring and assessment activities during a nuclear or radiological incident within the United States in support of state,local, tribal governments, DHS, and the federal coordinating agency. Radiological emergency response professionals with the DOE’s national laboratories support the Radiological Assistance Program (RAP), National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC), the Aerial MeasuringSystem (AMS), and the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS). These teams support the FRMAC to provide: Atmospheric transport modeling; Radiation monitoring; Radiological analysis and data assessments; and Medical advice for radiation injuries In support of field operations, the FRMAC provides geographic information systems, communications, mechanical, electrical, logistics, and administrative support. The size of the FRMAC is tailored to the incident and is comprised of emergency response professionals drawn from across the federal government. State and local emergency response teams may also integrate their operations with FRMAC, but are not required to.

The POP-DOC Loop: A continuous process for situational awareness and situational action

The emergency responder community trains for and responds to many types of incidents on a daily basis and has done so for years. This experience with fires, emergency medical calls, chemical spills, confined spaces, and other common calls for assistance has helped responders develop an understanding of the problems and a confidence in solving them. Radiation from an accidental release in a facility or during transportation, or from a terrorist incident that causes radioactive materials to be released from their containment vessel, remains a cause of concern and fear. Emergency responders are a segment of the general population and share some of the same fears of radioactive materials as the whole population. Radioactive material incidents are not a common 911 call type. Radiation training has been included in emergency responder training standards for several decades and covers a broad range of topics from simple awareness and recognition to technical knowledge of the materials, detection and identification capabilities, self-protection, medical effects, and countermeasures to overall public and environmental safety and health. The safety factor of the radiation community has been very good, but without the actual response confidence in handling previous incident releases, many responders remain fearful of radiation. A single source site where responders can post and read after-action reports on actual radiation incidents may help communicate health and safety information, building responder confidence. Competencies in standards do not always translate into compliance in training curriculum and exercises. The fire service has been the key local response agency to radiation accidents for many years and has developed training programs that meet the competencies found in 29 CFR 1910.120 [q], How to Determine What Training is Required for Emergency Response Team Members, and the National Fire Protection Associations Standard 472: Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents. The majority of fire service responders in the United States are volunteers who often make decisions on what they train for based on the time available and their areas' hazard assessment. This has often caused radiation training to be limited at best. Communicating timely and accurate hazards and risks associated with radiation threats and incidents may increase the amount and level of training in response to these types of incidents. Many law enforcement and emergency medical services and other key disciplines did not address these standards requirements prior to 9/11, as they were considered outside their "normal" mission space. The change in the mission space caused by the new threat of radiological terrorism has required additional training and equipment. This training has started but will take time to impact the entire responder community, it will require funding for the training and equipment, and most of all, sustainment. Communicating the broad scope of capabilities necessary to safely manage a radiation incident and the requirement for all agencies to be involved may support the effort to train these disciplines in their new mission space. The serious and much publicized radiological incidents that have occurred during the lifetime of many of today's responder community (Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island) have added to this fear within the responder community. The majority of today's responder communities are between 21 and 50 y of age. In studies conducted in recent years by federal agencies, it was identified that this group did not receive the basics of nuclear information provided to the U.S. population at the start of the Cold War and the fear of a nuclear war. These studies have identified the gap that exists in understanding basic radiation terminology, protective actions including sheltering-in-place, informed evacuation, public messaging, and others. Despite studies like this, federal, state, and local public officials have been slow to communicate emergency action plans to the public for radiological and nuclear incidents. Emergency management agencies at all levels have action plans for natural events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and coastal storms, and now they are including biological incidents and active shooters. Nuclear and radiological incident plans and protective actions need to be included and communicated to members of the public (and responders) in all media streams. Several federal agencies have been tasked with radiological and nuclear mission space, but this appears to remain fragmented without an organizing agency. The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (U.S. Department of Homeland Security) remains in a detection and prevention mission and has provided a good amount of equipment, training, and coordination, but primarily among law enforcement organizations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency remains in the response mission but has limited outreach to the majority of response organizations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response) has stepped up its efforts in medical countermeasures, surge capabilities, and support services. All of this information and support comes to the responder community separately, and it is left to the local-level planners to piece it together. It needs to be coordinated and communicated as one source. Communications remains the top challenge for the responder community as we look to the new administration for a plan for radiological and nuclear preparedness: communicating public messaging on radiation terminology, how members of the public can protect themselves and expected public agency actions; communicating a coordinated response plan that includes all levels and agencies; communicating the necessary training; andcommunicating the recovery actions that will have to take place.

Preventable medical errors are a severe problem in healthcare, causing over 400,000 deaths per year in the US in hospitals alone. In acute care, the branch of medicine encompassing the emergency department (ED) and intensive care units (ICU), error rates may be higher to due low situational awareness among clinicians performing resuscitation on patients. To support cognition, novice team leaders may rely on reference guides to direct and anticipate future steps. However, guides often act as a fixation point, diverting the leader's attention away from the team. To address this issue, we conducted a qualitative study that evaluates a collaborative cognitive aid co-designed with clinicians called Visual TASK. Our study explored the use of Visual TASK in three simulations employing a projected shared display with two different interaction modalities: the Microsoft Kinect and a touchscreen. Our results suggest that tools like the Kinect, while useful in other areas of acute care like the OR, are unsuitable for use in high-stress situations like resuscitation. We also observed that fixation may not be constrained to reference guides alone, and may extend to other objects in the room. We present our findings, and a discussion regarding future avenues in which collaborative cognitive aids may help in improving situational awareness in resuscitation.

Neutron detectors are utilized in a myriad of applications—from safeguarding special nuclear materials (SNM) to determining lattice spacing in soft materials. The transformational changes taking place in neutron detection and imaging techniques in the last few years are largely being driven by the global shortage of helium-3 (<sup>3</sup>He). This article reviews the status of neutron sensors used specifically for SNM detection in radiological emergency response. These neutron detectors must be highly efficient, be rugged, have fast electronics to measure neutron multiplicity, and be capable of measuring direction of the neutron sources and possibly image them with high spatial resolution. Neutron detection is an indirect physical process: neutrons react with nuclei in materials to initiate the release of one or more charged particles that produce electric signals that can be processed by the detection system. Therefore, neutron detection requires conversion materials as active elements of the detection system; these materials may include boron-10 (<sup>10</sup>B), lithium-6 (<sup>6</sup>Li), and gadollinium-157 (<sup>157</sup>Gd), to name a few, but the number of materials available for neutron detection is limited. However, in recent years, pulse-shape-discriminating plastic scintillators, scintillators made of helium-4 (<sup>4</sup>He) under high pressure, pillar and trench semiconductor diodes, and exotic semiconductor neutron detectors made from uranium oxide and other materials have widely expanded the parameter space in neutron detection methodology. In this article we will pay special attention to semiconductor-based neutron sensors. Finally, modern microfabricated nanotubes covered inside with neutron converter materials and with very high aspect ratios for better charge transport will be discussed.

Radiological nuclear emergency responders must be able to coordinate evacuation and relief efforts following the release of radioactive material into populated areas. In order to respond quickly and effectively to a nuclear emergency, high-level coordination is needed between a number of large, independent organizations including police, military, hazmat, and transportation authorities. Given the complexity, scale, speed, and potential negative consequences inherent in radiological emergency responses, tracking and communicating information is crucial towards helping the decision makers respond to a crisis. The emergency response team at the Angra dos Reis nuclear power facility, located outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, presently conducts emergency response simulations once every two years in order to prepare organizational leaders for an actual emergency situation. However, current exercises are conducted without the aid of any electronic or software tools, resulting in possible cognitive overload and a slowing of the decision-making process. This paper describes the development of a decision support system employing systems methodologies including cognitive task analysis and human-machine interface design. The decision support system can aid the coordination team by automating cognitive functions and improving information sharing. A prototype of the design will be evaluated by plant officials in Brazil and incorporated to a future trial run of a response simulation.

We compare and contrast the effectiveness of a set of adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms for isotope identi cation based on gamma-ray spectra. One dimensional energy spectra are simulated for a variety of dwell-times and source to detector distances in order to reflect conditions typically encountered in radiological emergency response and environmental monitoring applications. We nd that adaptive methods are more accurate and computationally efficient than non-adaptive in cases of operational interest.

The work programme of NERIS in post-accident recovery.

For resilience engineering and ergonomics, complex systems must be studied from the understanding of the variability occurring within and around the system. It is necessary to consider since the microscopic interactions located inside of organizations to the macroscopic context of the organization and where it fits. Therefore this article aims to create a tool to reproduce virtual environments for studies of nuclear and radiological emergency response from the perspective of resilience engineering and ergonomics.

Development of two mobile laboratories for a routine and accident monitoring of internal contamination

A global radionuclide monitoring system is being engineered as part of a multi-technology verification system for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The system detects airborne radioactive aerosols and gases that can indicate nuclear weapons test debris. The backbone of the system is a network of 80 remote detection stations that utilize high-volume air sampling and high-resolution gamma spectrometry to provide in-situ assay and near-real time reporting. These stations are linked to the International Data Centre, which is a central data processing hub where raw spectral data is automatically processed, analyzed, and disseminated to the states parties. Measurements are categorized based on spectral content to determine which contain anomalous anthropogenic radionuclides that require intensive radiochemical analysis at a certified laboratory. The resulting system has the capability to measure microbecquerel concentrations of radionuclides and provide accessible data products within minutes of field measurements. During the past year of international operations, the minimum detectable concentrations and spectroscopy processing statistics were recorded as a function of geographical location and time. The results show that this system is an effective tool for nuclear test monitoring, as well as other applications such as radiological emergency response, public health monitoring, and scientific research.

Immersive extended reality (XR) technologies, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality, and mixed reality, are transforming the landscape of education and training through experiences that promote skill acquisition and enhance memory retention. These technologies have notably improved decision making and situational awareness in public safety training. Despite the promise of these advancements, XR adoption for emergency response has been slow. This hesitancy can be partially attributed to a lack of guidance for integrating these novel technologies into existing curricula. This work aims to guide instructional designers, curriculum developers, and technologists in seamlessly integrating immersive technologies into public safety training curricula. This work provides a comprehensive account of our collaboration with instructional designers, public safety personnel, and subject matter experts in developing an AR-based training curriculum for the Sort, Assess, Life-saving Interventions, Treatment/Transport triage technique used in mass casualty incidents (MCIs). In addition, we introduce a systematic framework for public safety curriculum development based on the Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate instructional design model. Leveraging a human-centered design approach, we first analyze the necessity for immersive learning in public safety. Next, we identify the obstacles in developing XR training experiences and outline our construct of a training prototype through iterative evaluations based on stakeholder feedback. Finally, we share qualitative insights through iterative evaluations with firefighters and emergency medical technicians performing MCI triage tasks in AR, supplemented by survey questionnaires and semistructured interviews. Our goal is to provide a blueprint for a successful integration of immersive technologies into public safety training curricula.

The source term information of radioactive release in a nuclear accident is important for nuclear accident classification, radiological consequences evaluation and emergency response. Two major categories of source term estimation techniques are forward method based on the status data of the nuclear reactor and backward method based on environmental monitoring data. Although the forward method is more widely used, it may introduce large uncertainties into the source term estimate due to its subjective parameters and low quality of reactor status data in a severe accident. To reduce these uncertainties, a coupled source term estimation method that combines both forward and backward models, is proposed in this study. The forward part provides a source term forecast model based on Response Technical Manual RTM-96. Under the framework of sequential data assimilation, the backward part iteratively reduces the uncertainties in the source term estimate using environmental monitoring data. Numerical experiments with different uncertainties are performed using the reactor and monitoring point information of real Chinese nuclear power plant and its atmospheric tracer experiments.

Studies of future airspace design often predict that automated tools will be available to assist the controller and sometimes complete tasks independently of controller intervention. How this redistribution of functions will change the role of the controller needs to be considered, as does its impact on the controller’s awareness of aircraft movement in their sector. In a study of high altitude operations in future airspace where aircraft were equipped with different levels of data communications capabilities, it was found that about half of the participants positively attributed the contribution of the automation as assisting their own level of situation awareness (SA) – and hence perceived themselves as being in a better position in terms of SA under more automated / equipped conditions. Whereas the other half of the participants, who did not consider the automation to assist their situation awareness, perceived themselves as having higher SA under conditions that were closer to the current day. With increased reliance on automation and higher expected traffic volume in the future, controllers will need to rethink what constitutes as their SA since they will no longer be able to have a complete awareness of their airspace as they do now. Insights into new SA strategies that can factor automation’s contribution and integrate it into controllers’ awareness could be helpful in future training and tool design.

The paper researches the existing European standards for Public Safety and Emergency (PSE) services (also called Public Protection Disaster Relief “PPDR”) 1 , and identifies based on user studies in Denmark conflicts between the current deployments of the standards and the user requirements. The aim is further to identify the potentials of new technologies for PSE. The paper deals with policy and technology frameworks, regulatory issues and in particular the spectrum issues in the current PPDR deployments in the EU countries. The paper draws on the results and concepts developed in two EU-projects. 2 Experience from research projects are used to discuss new possible solutions to the problems. We look at the development in other major 1 PPDR is a broader definition. In Europe, the radio communications networks used by public safety and emergency services will normally be used to provide Public Protection (“PP”). As the trend in some parts of Europe is to allow non-public safety organisations that could be involved in major emergencies and disasters (for example transportation, utilities, military, etc.) to operate on the same networks as used by public safety organisations, it is logical that provision could be made on these networks (issue of terminals) to other agencies providing Disaster Relief (“DR”).