GLOBAL THREAT REDUCTION INITIATIVE DOMESTIC TABLE TOP EXERCISES

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), in partnership with the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary for Counterterrorism and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Directorate, provide table top exercises at select nuclear and radiological sites in the United States. This exercise series is the capstone of GTRI’s Domestic Material Protection Program and the exercises are hosted by GTRI partner sites that have completed security enhancements and attended an Alarm Response Training course. The purpose of the exercise series is to provide a 5-6 hour, no-fault, site-specific exercise scenario where senior managers from various Federal, State and Local response organizations can exercise their crisis management and consequence management skills in response to a terrorist incident involving WMD material. The exercise objectives include: promoting cross-sector teambuilding among Federal, State, Local and private sector first responders, exercising FBI lead responsibility for criminal investigation, examining newly developed procedures resulting from GTRI voluntary security enhancements, preparing site specific, integrated response plans with Federal, State, Local and private sector partners and ensuring that responding forces are properly equipped. The host site is not evaluated, graded nor is a formal after action report produced. GTRI also uses these exercises as an opportunity to refine and improve the security measures installed under the voluntary security enhancement program. Since starting in December 2008 this exercise had been hosted by 14 GTRI partners and four more are currently in the planning stages. This paper provides an overview of past exercises and their lessons learned, plans underway for future exercises and it highlights the positive cooperation between host sites and responding government agencies.