According to the statute of the Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) of 22nd December 1998 the SSK have the task to advise the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in issues relating to the protection against the danger of ionising and non-ionising radiation. In detail the tasks of SSK comprise the following: Statements and recommendations for the evaluation of biological radiation effects and on dose-effect relations, Observation of the development of radiation exposure of the total population, special population groups and occupationally exposed persons, Proposal of and advisory service relating to the elaboration of guidelines and special measures for the protection from dangers of ionising and non-ionising radiation, Advisory service relating to the elaboration of recommendations on emergency management and in the planning of measures to reduce radiation exposure in nuclear facilities.

Within the scope of a safety assessment possible radiological consequences of a repository in normal operation, in the post-closure phase and in case of incidents are assessed and evaluated with the help of calculations and investigations.

Within the scope of a safety inspection, possible radiological effects of a repository in normal operation, in the post-closure phase, and in case of incidents are assessed and examined with the help of calculations and examinations.

The safety specifications contain all plant regulations, that are necessary for the safety of the plant and its operation, and all information and measures required to control events and design basis accidents. The purpose of the safety specifications is to provide the plant personnel with the important data, limit values and measures necessary for the safety of the nuclear power plant and its operation including the necessary indications to safety-related basic design conditions.

A term used to describe bodies of rock that consist predominantly of saline rocks. It is used both for the area of distribution and for a salt-containing section within the sequence of strata.

Aqueous solutions with different salt concentration.

Salt material the cavities of a mine are backfilled with for stabilisation.

Salt masses ascending in weak zones of the earth’s crust and penetrating overlying strata.

Fine-grained salt rock material

A device of similar construction to a gantry crane, which measures the surface contamination with alpha and beta rays using wipes.

Deposits in pipelines are called scales. For instance, in geothermal facilities this term is used as well for fouling at heat exchangers.

During the waste container check on arrival, a scanner checks the container data against the stored data.

Alternative

• Radioactive waste

Imaging diagnosis method, where radioactive substances (drugs) are brought into the body of the patient. This nuclear-medical examination provides statements on the function of different organ systems with regard to general disorders of the metabolism and to locally described foci in single organs.

The term sealed radioactive materials refers to radioactive materials that are permanently enclosed within a solid, inactive casing that is sealed on all sides or that are permanently embedded in solid, inactive substances so that the escape of radioactive materials is prevented for certain in normal operating conditions.

The frequency and intensity of earthquakes in a region.

Method in applied geophysics: Artificially generated acoustic waves produce an echo of the different rock layers of the underground. The reflected echo signals are registered at the surface with the help of geophones. In the ideal case the interpretation of results provides a detailed image of the underground below the measured surface.

Voluntary self-commitment of the mobile network operators towards the Federal Government of 6th December 2001 with the objective to further improve precaution in the area of mobile telecommunication. Central contents:

• improvement of the information of authorities in situ,
• common use of antennae sites,
• alternative site inspection at kindergartens and schools,
• improvement of consumer protection,
• marking of mobile phones and
• enhancement of research.

Furthermore the mobile network operators propose to set up a measuring network for the continuous monitoring of electromagnetic fields.

Device surrounding a source of ionising radiation in order to protect the surrounding area from this radiation.

The Sievert (Sv) is the unit (SI-unit) of dose equivalent and effective dose. In general, fractions of the unit of dose are used in radiation protection practice: 1 Sievert = 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) = 1,000,000 microsieverts (µSv) = 1,000,000,000 nanosieverts (nSv).

Dose is often related to a period of time, i.e. per year (mSv/a) or per hour (mSv/h).

One talks about statistical significance if the observation of a population group clearly deviates from the expected value. To be able to evaluate this statistical methods are applied which compare the number of diseases observed in an examined population group with the number of the cases expected in this group, if the diseases in the observed group occurred with equal frequency - referred to the considered number of persons - as in the comparison group. As these are random samples, one cannot just say these are more or less, but for this statement one has to state an error probability. It has been agreed that a deviation between observed and expected case numbers is considered to be significant if this error probability is less than 5 %.

Sinking means working vertically downwards through rock using a range of techniques such as drilling and blasting, for example. A shaft is sunk.

Units of the International System of Units (SI). The application of the units in radiation protection measurements is regulated by the Ausführungsverordnung zum Gesetz über Einheiten im Messwesen of 13th December 1985 (BGBl. I p. 2272).

Physical phenomenon: suppression of the alternating current to the surface of the conductor with increasing frequency

Small cells are small radio stations with a transmitting power significantly lower (2-10 Watt EIRP) than in conventional base stations. They are installed in locations where a large volume of data is expected, i.e. where many people are concentrated.

If a transmitting power of more than 10 watts (EIRP) is generated by several small installations located close to each other, a site certificate must be applied for as for conventional base stations.

The mobile phone operators have confirmed that the limit values of the 26th BImSchV are observed in publicly accessible areas.

A so-called smartphone combines the features of a mobile telephone and a personal digital assistant (PDA) within a single device (telephony, data management, internet access, etc.).

Smartphones generally run on operating systems with an open application programming interface (API) – such as Apple's iOS, Google's Android, and Microsoft's Windows Phone – that allows the user to install software from third-party developers.

Classical mobile phones – often called feature phones - in contrast generally have proprietary operating systems (in which changes are not permitted) with a predefined program interface. Thanks to

• the incorporation of powerful processors,
• the use of modern radio services with high data transfer rates (GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD, UMTS, HSPA, WLAN, Bluetooth, LTE, 5G),
• high-resolution screens,
• digital cameras and
• the ability to install additional software (apps),

the classical mobile phone has evolved into a telecommunications terminal equipment with multimedia capabilities (in addition to mobile telephony and SMS/MMS, these capabilities include, for example, mobile data communication and synchronisation, Internet, email, photography, video recording, VoIP, video telephony, satellite navigation, audio and video streaming, DVB-H, DVB-T, tethering, NFC, mobile payment, participation in social networks, a games console, and more).

Taking up of a gase or dissolved substance by another solid or liquid substance.

A source of radiation emits ionising and/or non-ionising radiation. A distinction is drawn between natural and artificial sources of radiation.

Natural sources of radiation can be found in various areas of our environment – for example, in the bodies of living beings, in the ground, in the atmosphere or in outer space. A natural source of radiation is the sun, which emits visible and ultraviolet light among other things.

Artificial sources of radiation do not exist without human action and include, for example, various lamps, medical devices (such as X-ray machines), sealed and unsealed radioactive materials, and radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.

A source term describes the composition and amount of radioactivity released in an accidental event such as an incident at a nuclear power plant.

Source term information includes information on the type and amount of radioactivity released as well as information on the location of the release (in the form of coordinate data and height above ground).

The source term is usually estimated based on the type of emergency - for example, in the case of a radiological emergency in German nuclear power plants, using mathematical models. After a release of radioactivity has occurred, the previously calculated source term can be checked and adjusted using measurement data.

Nuclear transformation in the process of which a high-energy particle from the hit atomic nucleus knocks out numerous single particles (protons, neutrons).

The specific absorption rate (SAR) describes the energy taken up by the body in the high-frequency field per kilogram body weight in a certain time and which is mainly transformed into heat, its measure is Watt per kilogram (W/kg). The SAR is averaged over 6 minutes time of affect, then a balance has formed through heat regulation of the body between heat input and heat output. Prior to this the increase in body temperature is only determined by the energy taken up. By averaging over different mass areas it is differentiated between affects on the whole body and affects on smaller tissue areas. For example, when averaging over 10 g of body tissue (which corresponds to the mass of the eye) the inhomogeneous energy distribution in the near field area of antennae is taken into account (e. g. when using mobile phones).

The spread of radioactive materials from monitored radiation protection areas onto or beyond the premises of a nuclear plant/facility.

Part of the population who are organised as a group and who represent their joint interests

The ratio between the probability of falling ill in a cohort and in a comparison group (mostly the total population).

• With an SIR/SMR of 1 there is no difference between the two groups.
• With SIR/SMR less than 1 the risk in the cohort is smaller, with SIR/SMR higher than 1 larger than in the comparison population.

By means of a significance test it can be checked how statistically significant this difference is.

Of a random nature. Radiation effects are referred to as "stochastic" when the probability of a damage resulting from radiation increases with increments of dose, whereas the severity of damage is not affected by the dose. Cancer and leukaemia are examples for stochastic damage.

Location of the storage zones.

Alternative

• Radioactive waste

Stone walls to fill in or reduce any open spaces still remaining after the storage of radioactive waste is complete.

Science of the sequence of strata and formations and their age specification.

Random sample of a basic collectivity of persons at whom the investigation is carried out.

Effect of ionising radiation to the human organism from a source dispersed in the air over large areas.

Dissolving (leaching off) occurring under the earth's surface of deasily dissolvable rocks, in particular salts, through groundwater. Such underground leaching off can result in a sinking of the overlying rock section so that a depression forms at the earth's surface (subrosion depression).

Surface damage that occurs when land sinks below ground level due to cavities underground.

Contamination by radioactive substances on the surface of a material.

Joint of two nerve cells serving to transfer impulses.

Formed at the same time as its surroundings.