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Nuclear Brief February 2, 2005

NORTHCOM Gets Responsibility For Responding To US Nuclear Weapons Accidents

The new Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has been given overall responsibility for responding to U.S. nuclear weapons accidents in the United States, and is preparing a new nuclear accident response plan in coordination with the Air Force and Navy.

DOD response to nuclear weapons accidents and incidents previously was the responsibility of all the Unified Combatant Commands. But DOD 3150.8-M (NARP) issued on February 22, 2005, places the overall responsibility at NORTHCOM if the accident or incident occurs within NORTHCOM's Area of Responsibility (AOR). According to DOD 3150.8-M (NARP):

"CDR USNORTHCOM has primary responsibility to execute DoD response to nuclear weapon accident in the USNORTHCOM AOR, if the weapon was in DoD custody at the time of the accident."

Under the new plan, known as NC-NARP, NORTHCOM Headquarters at Peterson AFB in Colorado would play the following role in a nuclear weapons accident or incident at, for example, Kings Bay:

1. A nuclear weapons accident occurs at the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic (SWFLANT) at Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia.
2. The commander at Kings Bay sends an OPREP-3 Broken Arrow alert to the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at the Pentagon.
3. The NMCC notifies the White House, Secretary of Defense etc. and convenes a conference call with Operations Centers of USNORTHCOM, the military services, JFCOM, DTRA, DHS, FEMA, DOS, DOE, DOJ (FBI), etc.
4. NMCC dispatches a Navy IRF (Immediate Lifesaving, security & safety controls at Kings Bay).
5. The Navy RTF (Response Task Force) is alerted and deployed to Kings Bay.
6. NMCC gives operational command (OPCON) of responding forces to USNORTHCOM.
7. RTF Commander is the On-Scene CDR (OSC) and reports directly (OPCON) to USNORTHCOM (see figure).

New U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accident Response Plan

U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has been given primary responsibility for DOD's response to nuclear weapons accidents in North America.                Click on image to download copy of briefing.

According to current Navy nuclear emergency response instructions, the estimated number of Navy personnel forming the core of the RTF is 217. With the addition of non-Navy staff, as many as 300 to 2,000 personnel may be involved. Security forces include approximately 50 personnel.

Nuclear Exercises

The example of Kings Bay is not fictive. Under the code name Dingo King, first described on William M. Arkin's website Code Names, the DOD conducted seven nuclear weapons accident exercises at Kings Bay between May and September 2005. The exercises are known as Nuclear Weapon Response Exercises (NUWAX). One of these, Dingo King 05, was held at the base from August 22-26, 2005. The scenario was:

A private plane piloted by a dentist experiencing a heart attack crashes into a the loading dock at Kings Bay. The crash occurs at the same time that two nuclear-armed Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missiles (TLAM/N) are being loaded onto a nuclear-powered attack submarine. The resultant explosion destroys one missile and drops the second into 15 feet of water where it lays invisibly in the mud.

Was the water contaminated by radioactive materials? Were air or land contaminated by the explosion? Where exactly was the missile? How could the missile be raised safely?

Kings Bay Nuclear Exercise

A submarine tender simulates loading of nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles onto an unidentified submarine during Dingo King 05 nuclear weapons accident exercise at Kings Bay Submarine Base in August 2005.
             
Source: Sandia National Laboratories

The U.S. Navy stores approximately 150 nuclear-armed Tomahawk missiles at the Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic (SWFLANT) on the base along with some 1,500 nuclear warheads for Trident ballistic missile submarines. The Dingo King 05 exercise is not described on the Kings Bay Submarine Base media web site, which does not include press releases for 2005.

Supporting Plans

To support NC-NARP, each of the military services with custody of nuclear weapons has developed, or is developing, support plans. As of July 2005, this included:

  • Air Combat Command (ACC) Plan 32-1, CONUS Radiological Accident/Incident (Sep 02).
  • Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) Plan 10-1, ICBM Radiological Accident/Incident (Oct 04).
  • CDR, Navy Region South East Instruction 3440.15 (Apr 05). (for Kings Bay, GA)
  • Navy North West (under development). (for Bangor, WA)

NORTHCOM's Mission

Northern Command was established in 2002 as one of many U.S. government responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The command assumed responsibilities as it achieved "initial operations capability (IOC)" on October 1, 2002, and attained "full operations capability" on September 11, 2003. According to NORTHCOM's website, the mission is homeland defense and civil support, specifically:

  • Conduct operations to deter, prevent, and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories, and interests within the assigned area of responsibility; and
  • As directed by the President or Secretary of Defense, provide defense support of civil authorities including consequence management operations.

NORTHCOM's website defines homeland defense as "the protection of U.S. territory, domestic population and critical infrastructure against military attacks emanating from outside the United States" (emphasis added). Yet the new responsibility for responding to U.S. nuclear weapons accidents inside the United States is an important addition to NORTHCOM's mission. The new nuclear weapons accident response mission is not described on NORTHCOM's website.

Dingo King Versus Real-World Catastrophe

In hindsight, the timing of Dingo King 2005 is interesting because the government's decision to assign emergency resources to a hypothetical nuclear weapons accident exercise at Kings Bay occurred only a few days before Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans.

Dingo King 05 Joint Operations Center

As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, 1,800 government officials were busy responding to a nuclear weapons accident that didn't happen.
                                                     
Source: U.S. Navy

Dingo King involved some 1,800 military and civilian personnel from the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and others.

The government has been widely criticized for providing an inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina. Unlike Dingo King, the hurricane was a real national disaster that inflicted more damage than any nuclear weapons accident at Kings Bay probably could. Unlike in New Orleans, where the government response was criticized for failing miserably, the "hot wash" review after Dingo King called the hypothetical nuclear weapons accident exercise an overwhelming success. Said DTRA's Dingo King manager:

"The exercise demonstrated that an extremely professional and capable emergency response team serves as the base and local community. Dingo King was a great success."

Yet there is something surreal about the successful Dingo King exercise in late August 2005 and the government's choice of how to prioritize its resources as Hurricane Katrina approached. Here is how the Sandia Lab News describe the completion of Dingo King:

"Mission accomplished, the ARG [Accident Response Group] lifted off in a charter plane nonstop to Albuquerque on Saturday, six days after activation [for Dingo King]. The lift-off on Saturday afternoon was a step ahead of Hurricane Katrina, which had by then veered toward New Orleans.
Visible in the distance and as high as the plane, the hurricane loomed over the normal cloud layer below like the Sandias over Albuquerque. The next morning, it would strike New Orleans, finding terrible gaps in its preparations, despite the city's FEMA exercises."


© Hans M. Kristensen | www.nukestrat.com | 2004-2006
 



download documents:

» Briefing, Del Wallgren, NORTHCOM/J55, "USNORTHCOM Nuclear Weapon Accident Response Plan (NC-NARP) Roles and Responsibilities," July 19, 2005. [0.46 MB]

background information:

» Sandia National Laboratories, Press Release, October 15, 2005.

» Sandia National Laboratories, Lab News, 2005.

» Fact Sheet, "U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents: Danger in Our Midst," The Defense Monitor, Center for Defense Information, 1981.

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  © Hans M. Kristensen