Agencies participate in nuclear forensics exercise

Participants from the U.S. military and multiple U.S. government agencies recently took part in Exercise Trinity Oak at Fort Gordon, GA.  The exercise took place from Feb. 24 to March 1, and trained interagency participants in nuclear forensics.

Trinity Oak is part of the National Technical Nuclear Forensics (NTNF) program, which develops, sustains, and advances the nation’s technical nuclear forensics capabilities.  Exercise participants included personnel from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and the Departments of Justice, Energy, and Homeland Security.  Participants trained in and validated NTNF Ground Collection Task Force (GCTF) processes and essential tasks, which would be implemented in the event of a nuclear detonation.  Among the challenges that faced the participants were communication – translating the military lexicon into DOE, DOJ, and DHS-friendly language, and vice versa – a common problem in interagency collaboration.

Michael Holden, senior technical advisor to the DHS’s National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center, stressed the importance of exercises like Trinity Oak in preparing agencies to work together in the aftermath of a disaster.  “Our goal is to integrate the units into one big team and to ensure they can be woven into the NTNF GCTF smoothly,” said Holden.

For more information about exercise Trinity Oak, please follow the link below.
Soldiers Take Part in Multi-Agency Nuclear Forensics Exercise, U.S. Army


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