The National Nuclear Security Administration was set Monday to kick off a major exercise in Austin, Texas, to train a long list of local, regional and state agencies about the proper response to a radiological incident.
The Cobalt Magnet 22 exercise will be the such exercise held in three years, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration last week in an email. The agency aims to hold these educational programs every two or three years.
“The last one was held in 2019 in Brevard County, Florida, to prepare for the 2020 launch of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover,” the spokesperson wrote in the email. NASA’s rover, which touched down on Mars in February 2021 following a July 2020 launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, which makes electricity for the rover using heat from a decaying core of Plutonium-238.
Agencies participating in this week’s Cobalt Magnet 22 exercise are:
- Austin Government:
- Austin Homeland Security and Emergency Management
- Austin Emergency Medical Services
- Austin Water
- Austin Fire
- Austin Police
- Austin Public Health
- Travis County
- Medical Examiner
- State Government:
- Texas Division of Emergency Management
- Texas Department of Public Safety
- Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
- Texas Department of State Health Services
- Regional Agencies:
- Austin Regional Intelligence Center
- Capital Area Interagency Wildfire & Incident Management
- The Capital Area Council of Governments
- ROSS
- Capital Area of Texas Regional Advisory Council
- University of Texas
- Williamson County
- Hayes County
- Local Area Hospitals:
- Saint David’s
- Baylor Scott & White Health
- Accension
- State and Federal Military:
- 6th CST
- Camp Mabry Garrison
- DOD EPLOS
- NORTHCOM
- EPA:
- DC (CRIO)
- EPA DC (CREM)
- EPA NCRFO
- EPA Region VI
- EPA ASPECT
- Advisory Team:
- CDC
- FDA
- USDA/FERN
- HHS/ASPR Region VI
- FEMA:
- FEMA NIRTF
- CMCU
- FEMA Region VI
- National IMAT
- FBI:
- FBI San Antonio
- FBI HQ Lab
- FBI WMDD
- FBI CIRG
- RadResponder (Chainbridge Technologies)
- DOE/NNSA
