Who's in Charge: U.S. Nuke Disaster?

U.S. Nuclear-Disaster Preparedness Hobbled by Uncertain Chain of Command

April 8, 2011 - If the United States faced a nuclear disaster, local governments would automatically take charge, followed by federal authorities if the crisis grew too big for local responders to handle. But this system has a flaw: The nation's emergency plans don't spell out when or how the transfer of authority would be handled, even though small delays could put thousands of lives at risk.

The timing of federal involvement is deliberately kept ambiguous in order to "forestall a conflict about who's in charge," said William Banks, director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism and a Syracuse University law professor.

"We don't practice scenarios where state and local officials are overwhelmed from the get-go and the feds have to step in and take charge," Banks said. "The exercising and planning that's going on never forces a clarification of the answers to those questions." {continued}

U.S. Nuke-Disaster Preparedness: Chain of Command?