EMSI to Present at the Midyear Meeting of the Health Physics Society

On January 22, EMSI will present a session at the Midyear Meeting of the Health Physics Society (HPS).  Leveraging extensive knowledge in nuclear and radiological response, coupled with all-hazards incident management, EMSI subject matter experts will lead a presentation on nuclear and radiological incident management, highlighting the differences between health physics emergency response vs. the occupational setting and how to effectively integrate health physics expertise into an emergency response organization.

The session will tackle some of the incident management challenges created by the nuclear and radiological environment and discuss how to overcome them through the application of advanced Incident Command System (ICS) and incident management concepts.

Some of the concepts to be explored may include:

  • Incorporation of technical responders into an ICS organization
  • Decision-making in a nuclear/radiological incident
  • Managing extended initial response operations
  • Unified Command
  • Implementing Branch Level Planning
  • Dividing a single incident into two or more incidents
  • Implementing Area Command
  • Utilization of off-site technical support
  • The role of the Multiagency Coordination System (MACS)
  • ICS-MACS interface

EMSI’s extensive experience in complex incident management and hazardous materials response has helped inform some of the advanced incident management approaches to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) incident management.  Since 2007, EMSI personnel have provided contract support to the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA) Emergency Operations and Nuclear Incident Response programs, assisting with the integration of technical response personnel into all-hazards incident management structures.  EMSI personnel have been involved in the management of several complex hazardous materials incidents including Anthrax at the Capital (2001), the oil and hazardous materials responses following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010), and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster (2011).

EMSI would like to thank the HPS Society for inviting us and we look forward to a great session.