April 2005

Economic consequences of a radiological or nuclear attack

Loss of lives, injuries and property destroyed during a nuclear or radiological attack have significant economic as well as personal consequences. The cost to clean up or remediate an area, in an effort to protect human health and the environment, will depend on the cleanup standard applied to the event.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a framework for evaluating these economic consequences to help policy makers understand the impacts of various cleanup standards.

PNNL's research indicates that a risk-based approach to the development and application of cleanup standards is necessary because cleanup costs overshadow other impacts.

Session: "Response to and Recovery from Radiological Dispersion Devices," The Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center, Boston

Contact: Andrea Turner, (509) 375-3893; [email protected]

PNNL (www.pnl.gov) is a federal laboratory that solves complex problems in energy, national security, the environment and life sciences by advancing the understanding of physics, chemistry, biology and computation. PNNL employs more than 4,000, has a $650 million annual budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965.