The U.S. Homeland Security Department is expected this week to release guidelines for the emergency response to the detonation of a radiological "dirty bomb," Superfund Report reported yesterday (see GSN, April 2).
Top agency officials have signed off on the Protective Action Guidance for Radiological Dispersal Devices and Improvised Nuclear Device Incidents. It is not expected to be significantly different than earlier drafts of the document, according to U.S. officials and activists.
Draft guidelines raised concerns among conservationists and some Environmental Protection Agency officials concerned that they could permit radioactivity levels outside U.S. environmental cleanup standards.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration might put off releasing proposed EPA guidelines for responding to dirty bomb attacks as well as nuclear mishaps involving arsenal maintenance, civilian power production and other processes, officials and activists said.
Office of Management and Budget officials said they want to revise the wider-ranging EPA rules, dubbed the Protective Action Guidance for Radiological Incidents, in an interagency process that could last months. It remains uncertain if the finished rules would be published during the current U.S. administration.
The completed Homeland Security dirty bomb guidelines are scheduled for publication in the Federal Register, and the EPA directive, once revised, would be placed in the Register for comment (Douglas Guarino, Superfund Report, July 28).