Agenda - 05-02-2002 - Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 6 O. The evacuation plan in place now in case of a radiation release from Shearon Harris only evacuates a 10-mile radius. Who needs to be involved in the counties to get a better plan in place? How long would it take to evacuate a 50-mile radius? A. These are issues that are being studied by the Emergency Management Directors of the counties along the F40 corridor and Chatham. We know that a working group made up of state, county and municipal government, citizens, industry, hospitals, and other stakeholders would be needed. The exact role, mission, and planning methodology would have to be defined. As of now the best guess is that it would take 12 to 24 hours to complete an evacuation of the 50 miles, maybe longer for all care facilities. O. How can these good ideas be implemented with the pervasive budget cuts? Emergency services are being reduced significantly now! (Regional HazMat team has a 25% cut). A. Good question; this may be accomplished partly by incorporating planning strategies into government staff's daily work load and by adding this topic to existing meetings. Most stakeholders have meetings anyway, and it just depends on how much importance people place on this issue. O. What does the panel think of the idea of making Geiger counters available to many emergency personnel so that the level of radiation can be determined and the possibility of panic can be reduced! A. A few are placed in areas that would make them available to access problem areas. With the threat of the "Dirty Bombs" plans are to search out grants that will allow emergency management to buy the personal detection devices for early warnings of a release. These are different than the dosimeters; these sound an alarm upon detection. Panic can only be averted by good factual accurate information before an event and particularly during an event. O. Does Orange Co. Emergency Management have adequate training for biological threats for all emergency first responders? How and where were they trained? A. The training we provide for emergency responders in Air and Body Fluid Pathogens cover most biohazard concerns. We do have limited special equipment to deal with a scene. We work with the Medical Community, State and Local Law Enforcement, Health Departments and have trainers on staff. COMMENT FROM AUDIENCE: It is outrageous that the Governor or any of the state agencies (Radiation Protection, Emergency Planning, and Environmental Health) would not participate in this forum. This is very disturbing. As a former consultant in nuclear plant siting, I know what was considered when preparing nuclear safety analysis reports (FSAR), and it is obvious to me now following 9/11 disaster that all nuclear power plants should have new nuclear safety analysis reports prepared. The NRC should be completely restructured, separating the technical division and creating a new terrorism safety division with direct authority from the DOD (Dept. of Defense).