From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Major Cities' Nuclear Terrorism Response Plans Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with David Trimble, Director, Natural Resources and Environment Related GAO Work: GAO Work: GAO-13-736 Nuclear Terrorism Response Plans: Major Cities Could Benefit from Federal Guidance on Responding to Nuclear and Radiological Attacks Released: September 2013 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's September 2013. Nobody likes to think about the possibility of nuclear or radiological terrorist attacks, but making sure that major cities are prepared to respond to such attacks could help limit their psychological and economic consequences. A team led by David Trimble, a director in GAO's Natural Resources and Environment team, recently reviewed nuclear terrorism response preparedness. GAO's Sarah Kaczmarek sat down with David to talk about what they found. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] As we saw in the Boston marathon attack, cities play a critical role in responding quickly to terrorist attacks. What issues did your report look into? [ Dave Trimble: ] Our review focused on a very specific type of possible terrorist attack involving a radiological dispersal device known as an RDD, or an improvised nuclear device called an IND. An RDD is a simple explosive device is that used to disperse radioactive material over a wide area. If you think about the Boston Marathon attacks, but with radioactive material in the plume of smoke, that would be an RDD. An IND is a nuclear bomb basically comparable in scale to the one dropped on Hiroshima. What we did in the review is we surveyed emergency managers in 27 major cities regarding how their cities perceive the threat of such an attack, the preparedness for an early response to such an incident, and their views on the need for federal support in such an event. We focused on the early response in this work—by early response, we're talking about the first 24 hours—is critical to reducing the impacts both on human life as well as the economic impacts of such an attack. And it's got a local focus, because, within that time period, it's really the local authorities and the neighboring authorities that will be the first responders. It'll be about 24 hours before the feds can come in to assist. So the local response in that context is critical. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] What did your team find, then, in terms of how well cities are prepared to respond to nuclear attack within 24 hours? [ Dave Trimble: ] Well, as I said, we talked to—or surveyed about 27 cities and these were the major cities in the country including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and others. In general, we found that the cities consider the threat of these attacks as being lower risk than most other risks they face, such as earthquakes and fires and hurricanes. Though notwithstanding that, some of them have developed response plans specific to these threats using federal guidance. The cities were reporting wide variations in how their managers perceive their ability to respond to an RDD or an IND attack. Some cities said hey they were prepared. Other cities thought they were not prepared at all. The wide variation we saw in this survey, we interpret it as either reflecting differences in understanding of what is needed to respond to such threats, or it's actually a reflection of different organic capabilities within those cities. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And how's the federal government prepared to help? [ Dave Trimble: ] Well, the federal government plays a huge role in this area. In addition to substantial amounts of grant assistance to state and local authorities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, plays a critical planning and support role in emergency management. One of the key areas that we highlighted in the report is an interesting case where FEMA helped organize a large-scale planning effort in Chicago that included local state, multiple federal agencies as well as experts from national labs, all looking at key response strategies for an IND. This was sort of a first of its kind effort and it's proved to be a tremendous learning benefit for the responders. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And what recommendations is GAO making in this report? [ Dave Trimble: ] Well, you know it goes to help improve our national preparedness for a possible terrorist attack in that we are recommending to FEMA that they address the variation and understanding among the major cities regarding RDD and IND attacks and the perceived gaps in their responsibilities. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] For taxpayers concerned about the security of major cities, what's the bottom line of this report? [ Dave Trimble: ] The good news is that FEMA and other federal agencies are doing a lot to help make sure that all levels of government are prepared to respond to an RDD and IND attack. It's also important that FEMA continue its good work, so that our nation's biggest cities are as knowledgeable as they can be about what is needed to respond to an IND or RDD attack. 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