Each year, Sandia holds a comprehensive exercise to evaluate the Labs’ ability to respond to a wide range of emergencies. These exercises play a pivotal role in ensuring protection of our national security mission by validating that Sandia can effectively respond to potential incidents that might pose a risk to its workforce or surrounding communities.
“We train, drill and exercise year-round to ensure the health and safety of our colleagues and neighbors, while protecting the environment,” said David Stuhan, director of Environment, Safety and Health. “This year’s exercise was especially challenging because it involved numerous internal and external stakeholders in a scenario that included a simulated catastrophic event with multiple incident scenes and cyberintelligence challenges.”
The exercise scenario
At 9 a.m., June 18, a mock 5.6-magnitude earthquake strikes north-central New Mexico, impacting several critical facilities at Sandia.
During the temblor, the high-bay roof of the Annular Core Research Reactor, which can subject test objects to high-intensity neutron irradiation and conducts reactor safety research, partially gives way, causing the crane above the reactor to fall into the pool. Some staff members are injured by falling debris, while others are thrown by the violent shaking. Air monitors in the high bay sound alarms and the water temperature in the pool begins to rise.
Although other buildings in the area remain standing, their structural stability is uncertain. At another facility, the intense shaking causes packaging to fall from shelves, resulting in storage containers breaking open and releasing their contents. A forklift operator is thrown from the vehicle, and another staff member sustains injuries after being tossed into the shelving. Both people struggle to breathe due to chemical spills. Additional employees suffer chemical burns and respiratory distress, with one person suffering cardiac arrest. Response efforts are complicated by electrical events, water supply issues and natural gas leaks.
Adding to the chaos, two hours later, an unidentified group of hackers exploits the natural disaster and launches cyberattacks on DOE sites, including Sandia Labs in New Mexico and California, as well as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The malware attack disrupts services. And the situation escalates at Sandia in New Mexico with a ransomware attack impacting some networks.
Meanwhile, the New Mexico Gas Company reports a loss of control over its pipeline compressor stations, resulting in an inability to meet the area’s demands.
Reality check
The emergency exercise spanned the entire day with multiple organizations joining Sandia in their response efforts, including NNSA, Sandia California and Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories; the University of New Mexico, Presbyterian, Lovelace and Veteran Affairs hospitals; and other local, state and federal entities such as DOE, FBI, New Mexico Department of Homeland Security, city of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Isleta Pueblo, the Office of the Medical Investigator, Albuquerque Ambulance, Public Service Company of New Mexico and the Argonne National Lab Exercise Training Network.
“These yearly exercises are our opportunity to evaluate how well we can respond to a given scenario and identify areas where we can continue to improve,” said Jillian Konst, Emergency Management senior manager. “That’s the big value of these exercises. We test the system to learn and improve our planning and preparedness so we are ready for a real incident.”
The lessons learned from this exercise will be used to inform future emergency response strategies, ensuring that Sandia remains at the forefront of preparedness.
