The Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety’s Radiological
Assessment and Coordinated Emergency Response (RACER) team is
a Hazardous Materials (HAZMat) team, organized and trained to
respond to radiological or combined hazardous materials incidents.
The team is certified at the HAZMAT Technician level n accordance
with the provisions of 29CFR1910.120 and is organized to parallel
the Incident Command System (ICS) structure and is designed to
operate independently or under the ICS.
Because of the hazardous nature of the work involved,
the RACER team members are all volunteers, drawn from all offices
within the Department of Nuclear Safety. Based on team assignments,
team members receive Hazardous Materials Technician level or Hazardous
Materials Operations level training. Supplementing this training,
the RACER team participates in monthly day-long instruction and
mini-exercises, with quarterly three-day drills that include full-scale
team exercises.
Designed to operate independently if necessary,
the RACER team command structure includes a RACER Commander (RC),
a research officer, a safety officer and a liaison officer. Field
operations are directed by the Operations officer, who supervises
the activities of the entry team (one leader and six entry personnel),
the decontamination team (one leader and three decontamination
personnel), the logistics team (two personnel), and the medical
team (two to three personnel). The RACER team deploys with a fully
equipped command vehicle and all support necessary for independent
operations. The team’s Initial Response Vehicles (IRT) provide
qualified responders with all the communications, detection, monitoring,
and mitigation equipment, and personal protective equipment needed
to enter a HOT zone. The IRTs also support the department’s participation
on the State Weapons of Mass Destruction teams.
Training is a major part of the RACER teams’
preparedness. Training includes such topics as commonly used or
encountered radiation sources, radiation shielding and protective
actions, chemical and biological hazardous materials, terrorism,
personnel protective equipment, DOT regulations, shipping requirements
and safeguards, hazard recognition, mitigation preparedness and
response efforts. Outside response agencies from federal, state,
and local levels provide briefings to the team on lessons learned
or timely training issues. Several members of the team have been
recognized nationally as Certified Emergency Managers (CEM) or
Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIH).
Supplementing classroom training are training
drills and exercises conducted with wide variety of response agencies.
Joint training has been conducted in:
- Ottawa, IL, involving a simulated traffic accident with radioactive
materials and included participation from the Ottawa Fire and
Police Departments and the Community Hospital of Ottawa, the
Illinois State Police, and several independent ambulance providers;
- Aurora, IL, centered around a terrorism incident involving
chemical threats, a Radiological Dispersion Device (RDD) or
"dirty bomb," and included the city of Aurora response
units, bomb squads from several counties, the FBI’s Chicago
response team, the US EPA, and the IL National Guard’s Civil
Support Team (CST);
- Peoria, IL, with a scenario that included a hostage situation
involving multiple hazardous materials, and included the City
of Peoria response agencies and local hospitals.
RACER team members also serve on all three State
Weapons of Mass Destruction (SWMD) teams. The RACER team has also
trained with the National Guard’s CST on combined hazards situations
to ensure teamwork, equipment compatibility and to strengthen
the joint command structure. All of these exercises emphasize
joint command, interoperability and coordination of effort.
