Success Stories

ORAU to Serve as Principal Planner for Empire 09 Emergency Management Exercise

If the city of Albany, N.Y., was suddenly hit with a large-scale release of a radiological dispersal device (RDD), are emergency officials prepared to respond to such an incident? That is the question government agencies are looking to answer with its Empire 09 full-scale exercise (FSE).

Empire 09 is designed to test this very scenario, and Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU)—with its expertise in emergency management exercise planning and development—has been selected as the principal planners for the drill.

Scheduled for early June 2009, Empire 09 is intended to demonstrate the capability to effectively manage the technical response to a domestic RDD incident in an urban environment.

This interagency Tier II exercise is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and will demonstrate the capability to effectively manage the government’s technical response to such an event.

The goals of Empire 09 are to:

• Assess the effect of changes to roles and responsibilities for response to a US-based RDD, as outlined in the National Response Framework (NRF)
• Test and evaluate plans and procedures for managing the consequences of a domestic RDD incident in an urban environment
• Evaluate the utility and effectiveness of radiological data products for effective incident management

To accomplish these goals, Empire 09 will include the main FSE and tabletop exercises designed to address specific objectives and issues that will not occur during the real-time drill.

ORAU is currently organizing and facilitating planning conferences, coordinating asset participation and developing a comprehensive evaluation plan to collect lessons learned during the exercise.