Overview
- The multiagency exercise ran June 8–12 in the Colorado Springs area and concluded as planned with no real incident involved.
- FBI organizers led the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Ground Collection Task Force and worked with Army and Air Force units, DOE/NNSA personnel, DTRA, CBRNE teams, AFTAC and other technical partners.
- Participants practiced wearing specialized protective gear, performing strict decontamination steps, and collecting and packaging simulated radioactive debris to preserve chain-of-custody for laboratory analysis.
- The FBI reiterated that it has sole federal investigative jurisdiction for a nuclear incident and that the task force’s samples are intended to support attribution and possible criminal prosecutions.
- Organizers said the main outcome was identifying procedural and coordination gaps so agencies can fix equipment, clarify roles and speed safe, legally usable evidence flow to national labs; Prominent Hunt has run annually since 2012 to stress-test those processes.