Terminology to Describe Radiation Incidents - Radiation Emergency Medical Management

Terminology to Describe Radiation Incidents - Radiation Emergency Medical Management

Incident's Phases and Timelines

• "The Radiological/Nuclear Incident Annex to the Response and Recovery Federal Interagency Operations Plans" (PDF - 3.38 MB) (US Government Interagency, October 2016) describes 3 main operational phases for the response to and recovery from a nuclear/radiological incident.
• The phases vary based upon the size, scope, and complexity of the incident.
• The operational phases identified in the Response and Recovery Federal Interagency Operations Plans serve as the default posture for achieving Nuclear/Radiological Incident Annex response and recovery objectives.
• Catastrophic nuclear/radiological incident response and recovery activities are interdependent and often concurrent.
• Decisions made and priorities set early in the response will have a cascading effect on the nature and speed of recovery
• Figure 2 from that document, shown below, provides an overview of this default posture.
  
  
  
• HHS has used the following nomenclature (see below) to describe the chronological phases of an incident.
• It is valuable for all agencies to work from the same or similar nomenclature and timeline, as they respond to an incident.
• Illustration of the current nomenclature for the timeline and its phases.
  
  
  
  
• Expected Timeline of Events for a 10-Kiloton Improvised Nuclear Device Detonation
  
  • The graphic above is from the Nuclear/Radiological Incident Annex to the Response and Recovery Federal Interagency Operations Plan (PDF - 3.38 MB) (See Appendix 1 to Branch 1, page 26) (US Government Interagency, October 2016)
  • It shows the expected chronologic relationship of problems following the detonation of an IND.
  • The text after the graphic in the Annex explains the terms in the graphic.