Irap Interagency Radiological Assistance Plan PDF Download

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has sponsored a Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) since the late 1950's. When a radiological incident occurs and exceeds the capability of the Federal, tribal, State, or local authorities, DOE resources are made available through the RAP to provide assistance to those authorities. The explicit purpose of the RAP is to assist in monitoring and assessing activities associated with radiological incidents or emergencies. The DOE's philosophy is that assistance wig be provided in radiological accidents and will normally end when the need for assistance is over or if there are other sufficient resources available to handle the situation. The design of RAP is so that DOE's response to a small incident can smoothly scale up for a major radiological emergency. In the event of a major radiological emergency, the law requires DOE to provide resources through the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan (FRERP) (FEMA 1985). The FRERP is a comprehensive Federal plan that describes the overall coordination of a Federal government response to a major radiological emergency. Implementation of RAP is done on a regional basis, with regional coordination between States and DOE response elements. This regional coordination is intended to foster a working relationship between DOE radiological response elements and those State, local, or other Federal agencies.