NNSA's Radiation Emergency Assistance Center / Training Site (REAC/TS) provides rapid advice and medical care to individuals exposed to ionizing radiation.  REAC/TS is on-call 24 hours a day, to provide medical care or consultative assistance involving the exposure to ionizing radiation or radiological contamination.  REAC/TS, located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was established in 1976 and has assisted in more than 1,200 incidents involving radiation exposure.  REAC/TS handles many calls for assistance each year from state health departments, commercial nuclear power facilities, federal agencies, hospitals, the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), foreign governments, and physicians in private practice.

Mission
REAC/TS’s mission is to maintain 24 hour response operations to provide direct medical care and deploy personnel and equipment, in support of a radiological emergency.  In addition, they provide consultative services over the telephone.  The team supports federal, state, and local government organizations, when necessary.

REAC/TS Response
REAC/TS can be deployed at any time, and holds several responsibilities to include:

• Providing support to the IAEA in the event of a radiological incident.
• Serving as a focal point for advice and possible medical care in cases of human radiation exposure.
• Facilitating and creating a network of available equipment and staff specializing in human radiopathology.
• Assisting in the development of medical emergency plans to address large-scale radiation incidents.
• Assisting in the preparation of relevant documents and guidelines.
• Providing direct or consultative services to foreign governments at the request of the World Health Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency in the event of a radiological incident.

Capabilities
REAC/TS emergency response team is comprised of physicians, registered nurses, emergency medical technicians, health physicists, radiobiologists, and coordinators.  These highly trained professionals are prepared to conduct triage, decontamination, and administer therapeutics during an emergency response.   In addition to highly trained personnel, the center provides sophisticated state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, which include: a health physics laboratory; laboratories for chemical, radiological, and cytogenetic analysis; and a clinical and diagnostic imaging laboratory.  Aside from the laboratories, there are the 24 hour emergency department, intensive care units, a cardiac surgery unit, a laser surgery center, a magnetic resonance imaging center, and a radiation oncology center.

REAC/TS maintains a Radiation Accident Registry System, which allows the team to conduct medical follow-ups on patients previously seen and track treatment procedures and trends in radiation-induced medical conditions.

As well as a medical facility, REAC/TS is a training and demonstration facility where national and foreign nursing, paramedical, and health physics professionals receive intense training on the treatment of radiation exposure. REAC/TS conducts regularly scheduled courses for the occupational health physician, the emergency physician, and nurses involved in long-term patient care, and health and medical physicists.  In addition, REAC/TS provides medical emergency response training to state and local organizations to train medical providers.  REAC/TS’s unique qualifications make it an integral partner in the success of the Domestic Preparedness Program.