The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) leads any domestic investigation into crimes involving radiological or nuclear materials. To fulfill its investigative mission, the FBI and US government partners have invested in specialized infrastructure permitting the safe, secure conduct of traditional forensic examinations on radiologically contaminated evidence. The primary example of this infrastructure is the Radiological Evidence Examination Facility (REEF), located at the Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC.
To complement such infrastructure, the FBI has put in place the Hazardous Evidence Analysis Team (HEAT), a cadre of FBI examiners in traditional disciplines such as DNA, finger prints, firearms, questioned documents, tool marks, and trace. This cadre and the specialized infrastructure ensure that any criminal investigation can proceed expeditiously with the analysis, examination and characterization of both the radiological or nuclear material itself and the other items of interest that might be associated with the crime.
The experience of the FBI with REEF, HEAT, and related developments is being made available to the international community. For example, FBI experts serve as instructors for training on radiological crime scene management and nuclear forensics provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Office of Nuclear Security. Similarly, the FBI is engaged with the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (ITWG), a non-governmental forum that encourages and promotes exchange of best practices from processing the crime scene through the conduct of laboratory analyses to the interpretation and reporting of results. Finally, the FBI makes available its assistance to its international law enforcement partners in investigating crimes on their sovereign territory involving radiological or nuclear materials.
See more of: Security
See more of: Symposia