PNNL

Abstract

In an effort to validate and demonstrate response and recovery sampling approaches and technologies, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with several other agencies, have simulated a biothreat agent release within a facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on two separate occasions in the fall of 2007 [1] and the fall of 2008. Because these events constitute only two realizations of many possible scenarios, increased understanding of sampling strategies can be obtained by virtually examining a wide variety of release and dispersion scenarios using computer simulations. This research effort demonstrates the use of two software tools, CONTAM [2], developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Visual Sample Plan (VSP), developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) [3]. CONTAM is a computer program that is used to simulate building airflow and contaminant transport on a whole-building scale. VSP is a software tool that employs statistically defensible approaches in developing sampling designs and analyzing data. CONTAM and VSP were used to 1) virtually examine a wide range of biological contaminant release and dispersion scenarios at the INL facility and 2) develop a process for creating and evaluating sampling strategies for a given scenario. The CONTAM modeling software was used to virtually contaminate a model of the INL test building under various release and dissemination scenarios. Simulations were based on a range of building design and operation parameters, thereby providing information not constrained by experimental parameters as in the real-world testing. The results of these numerous CONTAM simulations were then used to investigate the relevance and performance of various sampling strategies using VSP.