Radiological Monitoring

~ ESF 10 TAB 3 ~

RADIOLOGICAL MONITORING

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I. PURPOSE

To provide guidance for the detection and measurement of radioactive fallout or contamination.

II. OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS

A. Radioactive fallout could be deposited in Pierce County from nuclear power plant accidents, military accidents, nuclear weapons tests, nuclear terrorism, the limited use of nuclear weapons overseas, or from hostile action against the United States. If Pierce County is in a position to do so, the fallout will be monitored and information relayed to the state Emergency Management Division.

B. The county may rely on the environmental health physicists from the state Health Department to provide the quantitative and qualitative data of such fallout measurement. This information may come through the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

C. For localized radiological incidents the county may use trained radiological monitors to determine initial radiation exposure levels and advise the health physicists of such information.

D. National Security/Radiological Reports

1. The Federal government has developed procedures to report actions of the population and local government in response to national security situations or international hostilities. The DEM is responsible for collecting, documenting and transmitting these reports to the state.

2. These procedures are utilized for such incidents as accidents involving the transportation of military weapons, nuclear terrorism, serious international situations which end in diplomatic solutions, or accidental missile launches. In the worst case scenario of a nuclear attack, it would be unlikely that any form of Pierce County government would be in any position to gather data or to transmit it to the state.

III. RESPONSIBILITIES

A. Pierce County Department of Emergency Management

1. The appointed Radiological Officer responsibilities are to:

a. Recruit and train Radiological Response Teams to provide monitoring support to other emergency workers.

b. Establish a radiological analysis capability for the EOC and prepare and forwarding reports to the state Emergency Management Division.

c. Maintain exposure records for anyone exposed to radiation (this does not apply to those activities or institutions which maintain radioisotopes for industrial or medical use).

d. Obtain radiological instruments and dosimeters for use by the Radiological Response Teams and radiological monitors.

B. Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department

Coordinate with the state Department of Health concerning monitoring of radiation.