An excerpt from Managing Emergencies at Los Alamos
Lifted from the Los Alamos National Laboratory web page
The mission of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Emergency Operations Office is to ensure prompt, professional response to all laboratory emergency situations that will protect the laboratory’s employees, property and mission as well as ensure the safety of surrounding communities.
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s emergency management process is designed to ensure that emergencies are mitigated in the most effective manner and that proper protection is afforded to laboratory employees, contractors, the public and the environment. The Emergency Management Plan allows the laboratory to plan for, respond to and mitigate the potential consequences of an emergency. This plan, coupled with the building emergency planning program and site-specific emergency procedures, presents the requirements, procedures and information needed to ensure that any emergency experienced at the laboratory is mitigated in the most expeditious and effective manner.
During emergency situations, the Emergency Management and Response Group will exercise the command and control of emergency response elements through the incident commander on scene and the emergency director in the Emergency Operations Center (if activated); these individuals are in charge of resolving emergencies that occur on DOE property. This authority includes the utilization of any laboratory resource necessary for the mitigation of an emergency.
Laboratory line management is required to plan for emergencies; provide the necessary emergency training to ensure that employees, the public and the environment are protected; and take the emergency actions necessary to mitigate any incident that may occur until relieved by authorized personnel. The laboratory’s Emergency Management Plan is designed to be compatible with emergency plans developed by local, state, tribal and federal agencies by establishing communications channels with these agencies and by setting criteria for notifying each agency when warranted by an emergency. The laboratory encourages employees to assess and report occurrences to ensure that management is kept informed of events that may:
- Affect or endanger the health and safety of employees or the public;
- Seriously impact the intended purpose of the laboratory’s facilities or programs; or
- Have a significant adverse effect on the environment.
Emergency Event Classification
Operational Emergencies. Operational Emergencies are unplanned, significant events or conditions that require time-urgent response from outside the immediate area of the incident. The Public Affairs Office will issue information the public needs to know to protect its health and safety in an operational emergency.
Incidents that can be controlled by employees or maintenance personnel in the immediate/affected site/facility or area are not Operational Emergencies. Incidents that do not pose a significant hazard to safety, health, and/or the environment and that do not require a time-urgent response are not Operational Emergencies.
Events that involve the release of hazardous materials require further classification. The three classes of hazardous material operational emergencies, in order of increasing severity, are defined as:
Alert. An “Alert” is an incident that represents a substantial actual or potential degradation in the level of safety. The incident may have created or could lead to a release to the environment of radioactive or other hazardous material. Such a release is not expected to affect the public or require protective actions.
Site Area Emergency. A “Site Area Emergency” is an incident that has created actual or potential major failures of systems or functions needed for protection of workers, the public or the environment. Such an emergency could result in releases beyond the facility boundary that exceed the Department of Energy’s protective action criteria for radiological releases or emergency response guidelines for toxic materials release. However, the release is not expected to travel beyond the institutional boundary and therefore is not expected to directly affect the general public.
General Emergency. A “General Emergency” is an event or condition with actual or imminent catastrophic reduction of safety systems with the potential or actual loss of hazardous material in sufficient quantity to exceed protective action criteria beyond the boundaries of the laboratory. For such conditions, it is necessary to mobilize available onsite and off-site resources to deal with the event and its consequences.
