Risk Communication

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This collaboratory is focused on discussions about Risk Communication.

The mission of this collaboratory is to focus on discussions about Risk Communication.

Members

Kathy Gilbeaux Katie Rast mdmcdonald

Email address for group

risk-communication@m.resiliencesystem.org

Looking Back on the Limits of Growth

      

Chart Sources: Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W.W. (1972) /  Linda Eckstein

by Mark Strauss - Smithsonian Magazine - April 2012

Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030.

(GO TO THE SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE ARTICLE)

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

The Club of Rome

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California Nuclear Plant Shut Indefinitely Amid Hunt to Find Cause of Problems

submitted by Janine Rees

      

The power plant has been shut down since this winter, when a small amount of radioactive gas escaped.

CNN - April 6, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Anti-nuclear activists warn of a potential environmental catastrophe
  • The San Onofre nuclear plant has been shut down since radioactive gas escaped
  • Officials have said there's no harm to the public health, but can't identify problem's cause
  • The head of the NRC says the plant won't restart until a cause and plan is put forward

(CNN) -- A large Southern California nuclear plant is out of commission indefinitely, and will remain so until there is an understanding of what caused problems at two of its generators and an effective plan to address the issues, the nation's top nuclear regulator said Friday.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Proceedings for the 2011 Community Health Resiliency Workshop are Now Available

       

 

Thank you for attending the 2011 Community Health Resiliency Workshop; your participation helped make this event a success!

Material from the workshop is now available for download in the attachment below, and at: http://www.communityhealthresilience.com/proceedings.html

Respectfully,

The Community Health Resilience Workshop Coordination Team

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Fukushima Lesson: Be Ready for Unanticipated Nuclear Accidents

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - March 12, 2012

A year after the Fukushima disaster all but two of Japan’s fifty-four nuclear reactors remain shut down, in a country where nuclear power once supplied nearly 30 percent of the electricity; the Japanese government is awarding an initial $13 billion in contracts to begin decontamination and rehabilitation of the more than 8,000-square-mile region most exposed to radioactive fallout

A year after the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, scientists and engineers remain largely in the dark when it comes to fundamental knowledge about how nuclear fuels behave under extreme conditions, according to a University of Michigan nuclear waste expert and his colleagues.

In a review article in this week’s edition of the journal Science, U-M’s Rodney Ewing and two colleagues call for an ambitious, long-term national research program to study how nuclear fuels behave under the extreme conditions present during core-melt events like those that occurred at Fukushima following the 11 March, 2011, magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

Rapid Appraisal Methods

usaid.gov

WHAT IS RAPID APPRAISAL?

Rapid Appraisal (RA) is an approach that draws on multiple evaluation methods and techniques to quickly, yet systematically, collect data when time in the field is limited. RA practices are also useful when there are budget constraints or limited availability of reliable secondary data. For example, time and budget limitations may preclude the option of using representative sample surveys.

BENEFITS – WHEN TO USE RAPID APPRAISAL METHODS

Rapid appraisals are quick and can be done at relatively low cost. Rapid appraisal methods can help gather, analyze, and report relevant information for decision-makers within days or weeks. This is not possible with sample surveys. RAs can be used in the following cases:

  • for formative evaluations, to make mid-course corrections in project design or implementation when customer or partner feedback indicates a problem (See ADS 203.3.6.1);

  • when a key management decision is required and there is inadequate information;

  • for performance monitoring, when data are collected and the techniques are repeated over time for measurement purposes;

  • to better understand the issues behind performance monitoring data; and

  • for project pre-design assessment.

Creation of Next-Gen Public Safety Comms Net Should Be Managed by Non-Profit, Says Study

submitted by Mike Kraft

gsnmagazine.com - by Mark Rockwell - February 1, 2012

The next generation public safety communications network should be managed by a non-governmental, non-profit organization that could impartially reconcile the myriad standards and procedures affecting emergency responders nationwide, said a report by an independent government advisory committee.

It also recommended that such a network should take advantage of “assigned public safety spectrum.” Congress has been trying to get spectrum for a national public safety network for years, battling over whether to assign the spectrum directly to first responders or auction it off to communications companies, so they can share it with responders and manage its back-office functions.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Report on the Domestic Natural Disaster Health Workforce is officially released

The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - ncdmph.usuhs.edu - February 1, 2012

Greetings NCDMPH Stakeholders,

The NCDMPH is extremely proud to release the Report on the Domestic Natural Disaster Health Workforce, a landscape analysis describing selected aspects of the health professions workforce who would respond to a catastrophic domestic natural disaster.

As the main output of our workforce project, the report analyzes the core Federal departments supporting Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF#8) by examining three key occupational sub-groups (emergency and critical care physicians, emergency and critical care nurses, and paramedics) at the national, state and local levels.

The report offers 14 recommendations on a number of issues, including: double counting of responders, volunteer failure to respond, an aging medical workforce, human capital development, personnel asset visibility, readiness and the deployment of subunits.

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New NRC Hazard Analysis Earthquake Study Released

submitted by Kay Goss

                 

US NRC study released today on "New Seismic Model Will Refine Hazard Analysis at U.S. Nuclear Plants" and performs studies at many central and eastern U.S. susceptible locations. The Central and Eastern United States Seismic Source Characterization for Nuclear Facilities (CEUS SSC) Project was conducted from April 2008 to December 2011 to develop a new, regional seismic source model for use in conducting and reviewing probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHAs) for nuclear facilities in the CEUS. PSHA is a method for assessing site-specific seismic hazard that includes getting the best estimate of ground motions and a transparent quantitative accounting of uncertainty. The results of PSHA are used in seismic design and in calculating seismic risk. 

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FEMA Urges Greater Public-Private Cooperation in Disaster Response

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - January 24, 2012

       

New Orleans, La., Jan. 17, 2012 -- FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, guest speaker for the International Disaster Conference and Expo, emphasizes the Federal Government's initial response to a disaster is to get people to safety, transport the injured and assist in the reestablishment of infrastructure. Restoration of infrastructure is critical and involves getting private sector entities up and running so gas stations, food establishments, hotels and other essential private businesses are operable. This allows volunteers, non government organizations and emergency responders to effectively help the affected community in response and recovery operations. FEMA/Ralph Simcox

Speaking at the International Disaster Conference and Exposition, Craig Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), urged emergency planners to take a broader view of disaster response and include the private sector.

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White House Honors Champions of Change in Emergency Preparedness

Posted in blog.fema.gov by: Richard Serino, Deputy Administrator

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