Sign up for our Subscription Service to receive press releases by email.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2006
At the recent Bio-Restoration Technology Demonstration
at San Francisco International Airport, the technician on
the left is seen collecting a surface sample of a simulated
toxic agent to check for biological indicators. The technician
on the right is wirelessly transferring data collected from
an earlier sample. This is done from a PDA device via a
Sandia-developed system known as the Building Restoration
Operations Optimization Model (BROOM).LIVERMORE, Calif. — A man walks into an airport terminal and places his briefcase on the floor next to a crowded check-in area. Moments later, a white powder can be seen coming from the case, and the man cannot be found.
When security is called, inspection reveals a small atomizer and a now-almost-empty tube of white powder that had been rigged for release via remote control. Eventually, the white powder is determined to be anthrax, and thousands of people may have been exposed.
In the future, the nation will be better prepared for biological pathogen terrorist scenarios like this one, thanks to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funded effort led jointly by Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories.
Last week, a two-day demonstration event was held in San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2 for about 120 officials from around the nation to lay out the response and restoration protocols that would be undertaken if a biological attack occurred. The event was the culmination of the three-year interagency collaborative effort focused on key transportation facilities.
Among those attending were representatives and key collaborators from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the Defense Department, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, BART, the California Environmental Protection Agency and key personnel from other airports (including O’Hare International, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles International).
Under the Bio Restoration Demonstration Project, LLNL and Sandia researchers developed restoration plans and demonstrated how airports hit by biological terrorist attacks such as anthrax could be more quickly decontaminated and reopened. As part of the demonstration, personnel donned hazmat gear, and analyzed areas of the terminal based on a mock scenario supplied by the FBI.
“A deliberate bioattack on an airport could have far-reaching impacts, not only in terms of public health but in economics,” said LLNL’s Ellen Raber, a principal investigator on the project. “This project is all about being better prepared to respond quickly and effectively while protecting human health and the environment.”
San Francisco International Airport was a partner in the three-year study. The national lab researchers used SFO’s facilities to evaluate what would need to be done to restore an airport and how to minimize impacts on airport operations.
Raber’s co-principal investigator, Sandia senior scientist Mark Tucker, stated that many of the ideas developed through the project could apply to the nation’s other airports and other transportation systems, such as subways.
“One of the aims of the effort has been to use SFO as a case study to transfer lessons learned, templates and technologies to other airports,” Tucker said.
“This demonstration project successfully integrated technologies and protocols, addressing many of the requirements that the Department of Homeland Security had identified as critical needs for airport restoration in the unfortunate event of a biological attack,” said Elizabeth George, the DHS deputy director for Biological Countermeasures.
Included in the airport restoration templates are: protocols for characterizing an area through sampling and analysis after an attack; decontamination options; approaches for allowing public re-use of facilities and the possible application of longer-term monitoring.
As a part of the approximately $10 million DHS project, researchers at Sandia and LLNL upgraded technologies to help shorten the cleanup times after a biological attack. Among the advances that were demonstrated at the airport were:
• A team of Sandia scientists has developed a GIS-based indoor sample tracking system (Building Restoration Operations Optimization Model, or BROOM) that permits public health authorities collect samples in a more efficient manner, to manage the large amount of data associated with samples collected from a contaminated facility, and to visually display the extent of any biological contamination. Sandia's BROOM decision support tool, said Tucker, is one of three technologies recently selected for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate commercialization pilot program.
• Sandia and LLNL also developed sampling methodologies to better understand the percentage of anthrax spores collected in samples (so public health authorities will have more knowledge about the extent of a contaminated area). Their work also focused on how to sample more effectively using more statistical-based approaches for evaluating cleanups.
• LLNL researchers have developed a rapid viability test procedure to determine whether anthrax spores are dead or alive within hours, rather than days, something that will assist in the decontamination process, shortening timelines for cleanup.
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Sandia media contact: Mike Janes, mejanes@sandia.gov, (925) 294-2447
Lawrence Livermore media contact: Steve Wampler, wampler1@llnl.gov, (925) 423-3107