Template:August 21, 2002: Commencement of NIST

August 21, 2002: Commencement of NIST Investigation Announced
NIST announces details of its forthcoming investigation into the collapses of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7 on 9/11.

The NIST investigation aims “to investigate the building construction, the materials used, and the technical conditions that contributed to the outcome of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster.” It also aims to examine the activities of building occupants and emergency responders on 9/11, studying such issues as emergency communications within the WTC, the movement of people during the evacuations, and issues around persons with disabilities. Leading technical experts from industry, academia, and other laboratories, alongside NIST’s own expert staff, will participate in the investigation.

Expert professionals from the private sector will also be involved. Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College, says, “This is going to be the most extensive building disaster investigation ever performed.” [ASSOCIATED PRESS, 8/21/2002; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, 8/21/2002; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, 8/3/2005]

The investigation is formally authorized in October 2002, when the National Construction Safety Team Act is signed into law. The act, which gives NIST authorization to investigate major building failures in the US, is written largely as a result of the World Trade Center collapses. [NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, 10/2/2002; NEW YORK TIMES, 5/8/2003]

NIST’s investigation is originally proposed to last two years, with a budget of $16 million. [NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, 8/21/2002] However, it eventually will last three years, with its final report into the collapses of the Twin Towers being released in October 2005. A previous analysis of the WTC collapses conducted by FEMA and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) was completed earlier in 2002, but this had a budget of just $1.1 million. By the time NIST starts its investigation, much of the crucial steel debris from the WTC collapses has already been destroyed. They later refer to there being a “scarcity of physical evidence that is typically available in place for reconstruction of a disaster.” [NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY, 9/2005, PP. XXXVI ]