Publications Details

Summary of Observations from the 2017 Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Laboratory Analysis Training and Capstone Event

Fournier, Sean D.; Shanks, Sonoya T.; Allen, Mark B.; Leonard, Elliott J.

On August 15th thru 17th, 2017 the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) Laboratory Analysis division, the FRMAC Fly Away Laboratory (FAL), the FRMAC Assessment division, and the Mobile Environmental Response Laboratory (MERL) held a training and capstone event for staff from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). LAB-100, "Sample Control Training", LAB-200 "QA Specialist Training", and LAB-300 "Laboratory Analysis Manager Training" was given the first two days of the event. The purpose of the training and capstone event was to meet training requirements for billeted FRMAC Lab Analysis staff from RSL, LLNL, and SNL as well as raise awareness of the FRMAC Lab Analysis process with EPA staff as part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency — Nuclear Incident Response Team (FEMA-NIRT) laboratory standardization project. An objective of the standardization project was to help improve the transition of operations from DOE to EPA during a response. To do this effectively, detailed knowledge of the FRMAC Lab Analysis process by the EPA is needed. This training provided a good opportunity for this knowledge transfer. A capstone was held after the two-day training event to allow participants to practice the skills they learned in a realistic scenario. A scenario that was previously developed for a quarterly Consequence Management drill (i.e. Dark Phoenix) was used as the basis for the capstone, with laboratory analysis focused injects used to drive the exercise play. Each position within the FRMAC Lab Analysis Division exercised to specific objectives and helped to uncover gaps in the established processes. The lessons learned during this capstone are broken out in the following categories: Sample Control, In-Situ Gamma Spectroscopy, Analysis Request Forms (ARF), Shipping, QA/QC, Fly Away Laboratory (FAL), and Management.