u1 AK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY T l'FICE BOX X OAK RtOGE TENNESSEE 37131 oPEAATEO BY MARTIN MAAIETTA ENERGY SYSTEMS INC December 17 1986 Or WIii iam Chambers MS K497 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico 87545 Dear Bl 11 I am enclosing my ccmments on Mighty Derringer as promised As you can see they deal primarily with the application of the Federal Radiological Emergency Res·ponse Plan to that situation and the DOE role under the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Plan portion of that plan The ccmments reflect my observations as well as my discussions with some of the pl ayers Overal I I think this was a useful exercise While it would have been nice to have a higher level of consequence play the state and local participants got a chance to deal with some of their federal counterparts see what kind of assistance might be available and work with each other outside of the usual office environment on the exercise problems Almost everyone learned something from the experience My comments need to be kept in this perspective Please cal I me next month FTS 624-5816 It you have any questions or want to discuss this material I enjoyed meeting and working with you Have a nice hol day Sincerely ___ K Kathy S Gant Emergency Technology Program Enclosure cc Exercise comments M V Ad I er C V Chester E J Jascewsky DOE-CH W F Wolff DOE-HQ EXERCISE SENSITIVE COMMENTS ON EXERCISE MIGHTY DERRINGER December 18 1986 I I A I Genera I Comments - - - - 1 s tqu- 11S c v 110n u1 Tllo rcise and th1 Tare and local play were not Integrated wel I Into the rest of the exercise More state and local Input to the plannlng would have been useful 2 The contra I team for the exerc I se was understaffed and not we 11 coordinated There were not enough monitors to keep track of play at different locatlons No system was establ I shed for col lectlng exercise documents status reports etc for later review and documentation Al I controllers were not kept Informed of events at other places so they could adjust their Injects 3 The different levels of participation allowed some groups to overwhelm other s when they had to work together and led to differing degrees of play and demands for data The state and local players did not have much of their technical support available 4 It Is Important In an exercise I ike this to have the local or state executive play or designate one of his staff to play There must be a strong person In that role having a law enforcement officer simulate that role Is not adequate The executive must be st rang enough to challenge the FBI or DOE when he or she thinks the interests of his or her jurisdiction are not being respected This Interference may make the play more dlfflcult but It Is much closer to real I lfe and could serve a useful training function 5 The timeline for the exercise was not internally consistent Many of the problems considered by the state and local players would not have been considered In rea I Ii fe unt 11 more than two days after the event A planned time-jump with new data already prepared could have helped on th i s problem 6 B The card system for logg1ng events and comments has potential be interesting to see how it would have functioned If the database could have been used Comments on the Appl cation of Federal Radlologlcal ' i A r t i It would computer Emergency Response Plan FRERP l - Everyone was 1 The players had varying degrees of knowledge of the FRERP not playing by the same rules at times 2 The designation of FEMA as the cognizant federal agency CFAJ along with the designation of DOE to coordinate public Information was somewhat __ lJNCT EXERCISE SENSITIVE Inconsistent with the plan The cognizant federal agency and FEMA are supposedly responsible for coordinating public Information These designations may have caused no problem or the press play may have been too I lmlted for problems to appear 1 1 1 1 IIIt 1I t cognIzanr teoeral agency tor The most commonlythought of accidents with only loose guidance being given for selecting a CFA or deciding that It Is not appropriate to have a CFA in other situations Perhaps some of the other situations should be defined or classified and agreement obtained In advance on the lead agency 4 C In postexerclse comments many participants stressed the need to organize by functional groups regardless of whether local state or federal organizations were represented In a real situation the participants might be spread among different operations centers Getting functional groups together could be more difficult The Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center FRMAC was planned as a functional center Methods of working closely· with state and local counterparts should be an Important consideration of the Federal Response Center Comments on the Operation Assessment Center FRMAC 1 l of the Federal Radiological Monitoring and The NEST Onscene Commander's decision to assume the role of Offslte Technical Director OSTO the coordinator of the federal radiological support to the state made it more difficult for the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Plan FRMAP portion of the FRERP to be tested The FRERP was written with the assumption that the Onscene Commander and the OSTD would be different people with different responsibil ltles with the Onscene Commander being the senior DOE official during the time that DOE had both onsite and offsite roles The Onscene Commander delegated much of the work of the FRMAC to his Director of Hazards and Assessment 1 i 1 i I I I 2 Although well-qual if led technically the management of the FRMAC had I ittle knowledge of the FRERP or Its approach to radlologlcal assistance Each DOE region for radlologlcal assistance has developed a regional plan for Implementing the FRMAP these plans usually discuss the organization and operat Ion of a FRMAC The FRMAC management had p I ayers develop l ng l operational plans and procedures when plans already existed 3 Many operational problems in the FRMAC were recognized by players as the 1 play progressed I e data and information flow qual tty control assessments vs recommendations access by press need for liaisons availability of maps etc Many of these problems have already been identified during the FRERP planning and In previous exercises and are addressed In the existing regional FRMAP Implementation plans however the problems reappeared because the FRMAC management was not faml I iar with that experience ' ___ UNCLASSIFIED JJ-Jf-J -EXERCISE SENSITIVE D 4 The capabilities of the regional DOE office and other federal agencies were not fully used · The EPA representative was rarely Involved In the assessment or In management decisions The assessment group did not take advantaCJe of the c los e wor-klng relatlonshio hetween the r-egloni n w Rao101og1ca1 Assisrance Program coordinator and the state These regional DOE people were the only ones the state knew The state was comfortable asking them for help This relationship should be Incorporated Into the FRMAC operation regardless of which organization provides the OSTO 5 The NEST search teams may provide the first available federal personnel for rad lo log lea I mon Itor Ing DOE should reexam I ne the rad Io I og Ica I qualifications of the searchers to see If some additional training could enable the search teams onstte to be reconstituted as field monitoring teams In the event of a consequence 6 The FRMAC did not always meet Its objective of providing timely controlled data to the state Data flow Improved as the exercise went on as problems were recognized and corrected DOE decided on Its own in the FRMAC what consequence projections to give the state The state realized and was extremely Impressed by the quality of the federal radiological personnel The st ate needed however to be ab I e to work c Iose I y wIth the federal people If the state radiological people had been more Involved In the assessment actrvltles the information produced might have better met their needs Summary Comment Under the FRERP DOE may have onsite responsibilities as CFA or In support of the lead agency such as NEST assistance to the FBI as wel I coordinating the federal offsite radiological support for the CFA and the state Although the DOE roles may vary somewhat with each radiological Incident any federal radiological assistance to state and local authorities should be provided in as consistent a manner as possible States are now generally using the FRERP as the basis for federal sTate interaction Other federal agencies Involved In radiological assi'stance atso act within the framework of the FRERP Wide variances in the way federal radiological assistance Is coordinated the lack of involvement of the regional radtologlcal assistance staff and the disregard of existing regional plans wll I deer-ease DOE's credibility with the states and cause confusion and frustration among other federal agencies Kathy S Gant Oak Ridge National Laboratory 615-574-5816 FTS 624-5816 r n·1 EXE r dlSE SEN rrlVE