Developing a comprehensive and accountable database after a radiological accident

After a radiological accident occurs, it is highly desirable to promptly begin developing a comprehensive and accountable environmental database both for immediate health and safety needs and for long-term documentation. The need to assess and evaluate the impact of the accident as quickly as possible is always very urgent, the technical integrity of the data must also be assured and maintained. Care must therefore be taken to log, collate, and organize the environmental data into a complete and accountable database. The key components of the database development are summarized as well as the experience gained in organizing and handling environmental data acquired during: (1) TMI (1979); (2) the St. Lucie Reactor Accident Exercise (through the Federal Radiological Measurement and Assessment Center (FRMAC), March 1984); (3) the Sequoyah Fuels Inc., uranium hexafluoride accident near Gore, Oklahoma (January 1986); and (4) Chernobyl reactor accident in Russia (April 1986).