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

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[ 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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