NEWS DIGEST DETECTION CHALLENGE
radiological and nuclear detection equipment manufacturers will have the opportunity to display their wares and to provide ‘refresher’ training for responders in August 2013 during the fi rst such exercise sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Domestic Nuclear Detection Offi ce (DNDO). The National Radiological and Nuclear Detection Challenge competition is intended to increase responders’ awareness and co-operation and will be held at the I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center in Knoxville, Tenn. It is expected to draw hundreds of fi rst responders from federal, state and local law enforcement, public safety and Civil Support Teams, including Rad/Nuc teams from US and foreign militaries and civilian agencies. Up to 400 fi rst responders will compete with their nuclear detectors and identifi ers, with a symposium of briefi ngs from both the responders and technology manufacturers sharing information. Radiological materials to be used in the competition will be
provided by The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. DNDO will award
The DNDO’s National Radiological and Nuclear Detection Challenge is designed to improve and advance the radiological and nuclear detection capabilities of federal, state, local and tribal fi rst responders.
non-cash prizes to the challenge event winners. An exhibit hall will provide space to all participants to showcase their equipment and operational capabilities and vendors will be encouraged to have exhibits, but will be required to pay a nominal fee to the event facilitator for exhibit space. But the exercise may be aff ected by sequestration. While the Challenge was given the green light before the government-wide sequester took eff ect, it may nevertheless be aff ected - especially as DNDO is paying for the hundreds of participating fi rst responders. For additional information on the National Rad/Nuc Detection Challenge, contact DNDO at
radnucchallenge@hq.dhs.gov zy
Shelter in place
The lockdown of Boston and surrounding areas following the dual bombing of the city’s marathon on 15 April which killed three and injured almost 300 was a highly rare response in the United States to a terrorism threat, and greatly resembled a security response to attacks involving the release of CBRN materials. The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, urged everyone living in the Boston area to “shelter-in-place” while police hunted down the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, with the warning that further bombings (including the possibility Tsarnaev would blow himself and others up) or shootings could put civilians in grave danger. The lockdown included halting the mass transit system, closing universities and directing students to remain indoors, directing local businesses and schools to close and stay closed, and city workers not to come in to work – or if already in the workplace, to stay there. According to the Director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, Frank Cilluff o, no other circumstances had previously required a lockdown in a city the size of Boston in response to a security threat. The Boston response also re-opened discussion about the threat from
10 CBNW 2013/02
radiological dispersal devices (RDDs): had the two pressure-cooker IEDs included a radioactive component, staying indoors would have helped to reduce human exposure or at least keep people out of harm’s way until a radiological threat could be ruled out. Richard Daddario, NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism, told the House Homeland Security Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee on 25 April that a radiological attack in a dense urban area such as Boston or New York City would cause contamination to a large area around the explosion sites, that the impacted area would have to be evacuated and all businesses and offi ces closed while environmental remediation were carried out.
More than 850 members of the
Massachusetts National Guard Civil Support Team were on hand to assist local authorities with logistics and security during the Marathon and expert rescue following the incidents. In addition, the 6th Civil Support Team, Texas Army National Guard, was tasked with monitoring air quality for hazardous emissions at the site of the burning fertilizer plant which set on fi re and exploded at West, Texas, on 18 April, killing 15 and injuring hundreds, and the Mississippi National Guard’s 47th Civil Support Team aided state, local and federal offi cials in identifying potentially poisonous substances – later identifi ed as ricin - mailed to members of the US Senate and the White House. zy
Beating botulism
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has licensed Botulism Antitoxin Heptavalent - the fi rst drug for counter- acting botulism - and the second awarded to a drug prepared with support from Project Bioshield, the multibillion-dollar US initiative to support development of WMD medical countermeasures. The FDA licensed the treatment followed effi cacy trials involving 228 botulism victims as well as safety tests in 40 people who had not been exposed to the toxin. Canadian biotechnology fi rm Cangene is to deliver 200,000 doses of the drug to the US Strategic National Stockpile of medical countermeasures under a 2006 agreement with Health and Human Services, having in June 2011 supplied 120,000 doses, and with remaining shipments due by 2018. The drug’s development and acquisition contract is worth $427 million. Botulism causes 100 US hospitalizations each year and while developed as an aerially dispersed bioweapon, is best suited for release in an enclosed area or for poisoning food supplies. It takes between 12 and 72 hours to produce visible signs when ingested, and symptoms take around three days to become evident in the few recorded instances of inhalation. zy
Photomicrograph of Clostridium botulinum stained with Gentian violet.
Army Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Mark Bell
PD-USGOV-HHS-CDC.
©DNDO
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