Features

ORAU and 2009 Presidential Inauguration: Widespread Involvement in Unprecedented National Security Event

While millions crowded the cold streets of downtown Washington, D.C., to celebrate Barack Obama's historic inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009, twenty-five ORAU personnel were hard at work.

Known for its expertise in national security and emergency management, ORAU employees were called upon by the federal government and then stationed throughout the Washington metro area... engaged in the largest deployment in the history of the NNSA Office of Emergency Response.

The multi-day plan-of-action spanned four states, multiple events and embedded ORAU personnel at numerous governmental locations.  

ORAU provided a wide range of support, which included the coverage of speeches in Philadelphia the weekend before the inauguration and ending days after the swearing in ceremony.

While some ORAU operations experts manned the Nuclear Incident Team at the U.S. Department of Energy headquarters and its alternate location, others engaged on the ground activities, including assisting Radiological Assistance Program teams in providing radiation detection support to federal and local law enforcement agencies.

ORAU personnel also represented DOE in operation centers throughout government. In fact, an ORAU “home team” was required to coordinate all of the ORAU personnel deployed to various locations around the clock.

Such efforts are nothing new to ORAU; however, previous deployments for events, including the State of the Union, the G-20 Summit and numerous national-level exercises, paled in comparison to the complexity and breadth of operations carried out for the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.

Not only did the event demonstrate the operational capacity of ORAU, it also acted on plans that the program supports year round.