Managing Risks from WMDs

Noblis has the technical expertise to help customers manage the risks posed by weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to their facilities and operations. In a world that has seen terrorists use Sarin in the Tokyo subway and anthrax in the U.S. postal system, this has become an important issue. Noblis can help customers to identify cost-effective countermeasures that reduce the risk from terrorist acts involving WMDs. This requires a deliberate process of understanding risk—the likelihood that a threat will harm either an employee, a patron, or the customer's assets with some severity of consequences.

The Process

Managing the risks posed by WMDs is typically conducted in three interrelated phases:
  • Assessing the Threat - Evaluate the current threat spectrum potentially facing the customer's facilities and operations and identify the types of terrorist acts of greatest concern that may target the customer or could use its facilities to attack some other target.
  • Assessing Vulnerability - Assess customer facility vulnerabilities with respect to the terrorist acts of greatest concern and identify possible impacts on customer employees, patrons, facilities, and operations.
  • Managing Consequences - Identify and analyze countermeasures to determine the most effective way of allocating resources that would achieve an acceptable level of risk regarding identified vulnerabilities and the terrorist acts of greatest concern.
There are a series of feedback loops between phases. These feedback loops are a recognition that threat constantly changes in response to consequence management (mitigation and remediation of existing vulnerabilities). It also means that the customer will, of necessity, have to continually assess its vulnerability to evolving terrorist threats.


Noblis' WMD Risk Management Customers

We have recently assisted the following agencies in managing the risks posed by WMDs to their facilities and operations:
  • U.S. Postal Service - Noblis supported preparation of the Emergency Preparedness Plan covering biological attacks, delivered by the Postal Service to Congress on 8 March 2002. Noblis also assisted in extending the effort to a full-spectrum assessment of biological, chemical, radiological, and explosive threats that may impinge on the mail.
  • U.S. Navy - Noblis prepared a screening threat assessment of nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological materials in the saltwater pathway and their effect on U.S. naval forces for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, METOP Division (SPAWAR).
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Noblis reviewed decontamination technologies for biological and chemical warfare agents to support EPA's Safe Buildings Program.
In addition to agencies we have directly assisted in risk management, our efforts in this area also draw upon our experience with the following activities:
  • U.S. Army/Department of Defense - Since 1982, Noblis has provided the U.S. Army's Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization and the Department of Defense's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program with systems analysis, planning, and coordination support. Our contributions to the program for disposal of U.S. chemical warfare material include assessments of public and environmental risk associated with various transport and disposal options, evaluation of demilitarization/disposal technologies, and process safety engineering;. 
  • U.S. Government Intelligence Community - For the past ten years, Noblis has provided programmatic and technical support to the biological weapons defense programs of the Intelligence Community. Noblis’ support includes system engineering, program management, system acquisition, operational and analytic efforts in the areas of chemical and biological sciences and engineering, laboratory analytical methods, quality assurance and protocol development, and information systems. 
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) - Noblis has supported the Critical Infrastructure Protection directorate since 1999 regarding the identification of critical assets and asset dependencies and the conduct of vulnerability assessments.
  • Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) - Noblis assisted the DNFSB in reviewing and evaluating the safety of various major defense nuclear facilities, including those at Savannah River (South Carolina), Rocky Flats (Colorado), Hanford (Washington), and Pantex (Texas). These facilities were formerly involved in the production and processing of nuclear weapons material and are presently transitioning to decommissioning and cleanup activities. We have also helped the DNFSB conduct and review risk assessments of nuclear weapons disassembly operations, such as at Pantex (Texas).
The expertise that Noblis has developed in its long-standing support of these programs is directly applicable to managing the risks posed by WMDs.