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Electromagnetic fields
- What are electromagnetic fields?
- High-frequency fields
- Radiation protection in mobile communication
- Static and low-frequency fields
- Radiation protection relating to the expansion of the national grid
- Radiation protection in electromobility
- The Competence Centre for Electromagnetic Fields
Optical radiation
- What is optical radiation?
- UV radiation
- Visible light
- Infrared radiation
- Application in medicine and wellness
- Application in daily life and technology
Ionising radiation
- What is ionising radiation?
- Radioactivity in the environment
- Where does radioactivity occur in the environment?
- Natural radiation in Germany
- Air, soil and water
- Radon
- Foodstuffs
- What radionuclides can be found in food?
- Natural radioactivity in food
- Radiation exposure via food intake
- Natural radionuclides in brazil nuts
- Radiation exposure of mushrooms and game
- Radiation exposure due to natural radionuclides in drinking water
- Natural radionuclides in mineral waters
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- Radioactive radiation sources in Germany
- Register high-level radioactive radiation sources
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- What are the effects of radiation?
- Effects of selected radioactive materials
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- Radiation protection
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- Emergency Preparedness Guide
- What is an emergency?
- What are the consequences of an emergency?
- Who does what in an emergency?
- Federal and state tasks
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Development of emergency preparedness in Germany
- After the Chornobyl accident, the Federal Environment Ministry was founded in 1986, followed by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection three years later.
- As a direct consequence of Chernobyl, the Integrated Measuring and Information System (IMIS) was created in Germany. IMIS is used to collect and evaluate all measurement data from official bodies in relation to environmental radioactivity.
- With 1,700 monitoring probes active around the clock, the area-wide ODL Measuring Network automatically raises the alarm in the event of elevated radioactivity in Germany's air.
- Following the accident in Fukushima in 2011, the results of investigations by the BfS were incorporated into a recommendation by the Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) to extend the existing planning zones for emergency protection in the vicinity of nuclear power plants.
In 1986, the Cold War was still underway, Germany remained divided into the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and (global) communications were nothing like they are now: indeed, the Internet and smartphones hadn't even been invented yet.
When the first reports and images emerged of an incident at the Soviet nuclear power plant Chornobyl (Russian: Chernobyl) in 1986, there was initial uncertainty as to what exactly had taken place. Only gradually did government agencies provide their assessments of the incident. The available information – which was already scant due to the prevailing political circumstances – was made even more vague for the German public by the fact that different government agencies issued different recommended courses of action.
There were no unified nationwide reference levels, no legal foundations, and only a few stations that were capable of measuring airborne radioactivity. There was also a lack of international agreements concerning the rapid mutual exchange of information on nuclear accidents.
1989: founding of the BfS
Headquarters of the BfS in Salzgitter
As the result of the accident at Chornobyl in 1986, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) was established by the end of the year. This was followed three years later by the founding of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) in 1989, whose responsibilities include determining environmental contamination and assessing the situation following a radiological accident.
Various scientific institutions have been integrated into the BfS, such as
- the Institute of Radiation Hygiene of the Federal Health Agency in Neuherberg (near Munich),
- the Institute for Atmospheric Radioactivity of the Federal Office of Civil Defence in Freiburg,
- parts of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig and
- (after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989) the State Office for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection of the GDR in Berlin.
Salzgitter was chosen as the headquarters of the BfS.
Legal foundations
After the Chornobyl reactor accident, the lack of legal provisions meant that, in some cases, different limit values and courses of action were recommended at the federal and state levels.
As a consequence, the "Act on the Precautionary Protection of the Population against Radiation Exposure" (Precautionary Radiation Protection Act) was adopted on 19 December 1986 in order to establish the legal prerequisites for coordinated national action in comparable situations. The purpose of this Act was to adopt new rules governing the routine monitoring of environmental radioactivity and to keep "the radiation exposure of humans and the radioactive contamination of the environment in the case of events involving potential radiological effects which are not insignificant … as low as possible by adequate measures, in consideration of both the state of science and all prevailing circumstances".
Measures aimed at protecting the population against radioactive substances are now regulated by the Radiation Protection Act (StrlSchG). Adopted in 2017, this Act unifies the previous legal regulations on radiation protection and provides, among other things, for the establishment of the Federal Radiological Situation Centre (RLZ) under the direction of the Federal Ministry for the Environment.
What's new after the Radiation Protection Act (StrSchG) entered into force?
Radioactivity measurements and data analysisShow / Hide
The Integrated Measuring and Information System (IMIS)
After the Chornobyl accident, the methods for measuring and evaluating the data differed from one federal state to another, making it difficult to produce a unified situation report. There was a lack of unified procedures and a central body where the measurement data was collected and evaluated.
An essential part of the Precautionary Radiation Protection Act of 1986 was therefore the establishment and operation of a measurement and information system for radioactivity known as the "Integrated Measuring and Information System" (IMIS) and for which responsibility was assumed by the BfS.
IMIS is used to collect environmental measurements:
- air,
- food,
- animal feed,
- soil,
- drinking water,
- groundwater and
- waste
are sampled, measured and analysed.
In total, over 80 federal and state institutions participate in IMIS. In order to monitor the radiological situation at all times, the BfS has led the development of a routine and intensive monitoring programme that specifies what must be sampled or measured where, by whom and at what frequency.
As part of IMIS, there are currently some 1,700 BfS measuring probes in Germany that continuously monitor both artificial and natural environmental radioactivity. This ensures seamless and comprehensive monitoring of airborne radioactivity both on a routine basis and in the event of a radiological accident. The system indicates changes in the ambient radiation at an early stage and triggers an alarm in the event of heightened levels of radioactivity.
With the aid of the forecasting and decision support system RODOS (Realtime Online Decision Support System), the BfS promptly estimates the environmental contamination and the resulting human exposure to radiation across the entire area in case of an impending release of radioactive materials – for example, from a nuclear power plant.
The results from measurement data and forecast calculations contribute to a radiological situation report, which forms an important basis for action by the authorities in a radiological emergency.
Catalogue of measuresShow / Hide
Should an incident occur, decisions on measures to reduce human exposure to radiation must be taken quickly, especially in the early stages.
To this end, the German Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) has, in collaboration with the BfS, compiled a catalogue of all measures to be considered. This catalogue of measures describes the civil protective and emergency measures, and analyses both their effectiveness and their advantages and disadvantages, such as feasibility and public acceptance.
Intervention reference levelsShow / Hide
Dose criteria for emergencies indicate what civil protective measures should be taken in the event of a radiological emergency – and the expected level of human exposure to radiation from which these measures apply. The dose of radiation to which a person would be exposed in a nuclear accident serves as the basis for evaluation.
Prior to the Chernobyl reactor accident, there were no unified dose criteria for emergencies, and a margin of discretion was assumed. The process of dealing with the consequences of the Chernobyl accident highlighted the need for unified nationwide reference levels in an emergency.
As a result of the Chernobyl accident, therefore, specific dose criteria were defined for evacuation, the sheltering of people in buildings, and the taking of iodine tablets. At doses above the dose criteria for emergencies, the measures must be implemented wherever possible. Below, the measures must be discussed from the point of view of proportionality. Human exposure to radiation should be kept as low as possible.
Limit values for food and animal feedShow / Hide
The lack of legal regulations in the aftermath of the Chernobyl reactor accident also meant that inconsistent limit values applied to food and animal feed in Germany. As a result of the accident, the European Community introduced maximum values for caesium-134 and caesium-137, strontium-89/90 and plutonium. For example, these apply to:
- milk, dairy products and baby food,
- other foodstuffs such as meat and vegetables.
Iodine tabletsShow / Hide
A nuclear accident can result in the release of radioactive iodine. If it is inhaled or enters the body via food or beverages, it may accumulate in the thyroid and encourage the development of thyroid cancer.
There was a particularly marked increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in children in Belarus and Ukraine in the years following the Chornobyl reactor disaster. This led the German Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) to re-evaluate the radiation risk for this form of cancer and consequently to lower the intervention reference levels for the distribution of iodine tablets significantly.
Planning zones for emergency responseShow / Hide
In order to be able to carry out disaster control measures such as evacuations effectively in an emergency, they must be planned in advance. To this end, so-called planning zones have been established in the vicinity of nuclear power plants.
After the reactor accident in Fukushima, Japan, in March 2011, the BfS examined the question of what effects an accident in a German nuclear power plant with a similar course of events to Fukushima would have in Germany (BfS report SW-11/12). This investigation was continued between autumn 2012 and the end of 2013 with more than 5,000 additional case studies. The detailed report (BfS Report BfS-SCHR-55/14) was published at the end of February 2015.
The BfS findings were directly incorporated into a recommendation by the Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK), which recommends extending the existing planning zones for emergency protection in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. These were forwarded by the Federal Environment Ministry to the state authorities for further plannin
General emergency plan for federal governmentShow / Hide
The "General Federal Emergency Plan" has been in force since 2023. It applies to various types of radiological emergencies in Germany and abroad, for example following accidents in a nuclear power plant or during the transport of radioactive materials. The emergency plan provides for planning scenarios for such events and regulates the following on this basis
- Criteria for protective measures,
- procedures for warning and informing the public and
- regulations for official cooperation and coordination in the event of a radiological emergency.
The emergency plan partially replaces existing planning documents.
The Federal Radiological Situation Centre plays a special role here. Its tasks include drawing up the radiological situation picture in the event of serious supra-regional emergencies, informing the population and giving them recommendations on what to do.
To supplement the general federal emergency plan, further special emergency plans are to be drawn up that regulate the emergency response in certain areas potentially affected by such emergencies. The federal states are also developing additional emergency plans to supplement the federal plans. Until these emergency plans come into force, numerous existing documents will continue to apply as provisional federal and state emergency plans.
State of 2024.06.15