Federal Office for Radiation Protection
Responsibility for Man and Environment

Our Guiding Principles describe the principles and objectives of the work of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) that have been worked out and sustained by its employees. They provide orientation and help to reach determined goals. They describe our tasks and principles. The Guiding Principles formulate rules for the structuring of the organisation as well as for the contact with each other and with external partners.

What we do

We work for the safety and protection of man and the environment against damage due to ionising and non-ionising radiation. The field of ionising radiation includes, e.g., X-ray diagnosis in medicine, safety in the use of radioactive materials, among others in nuclear technology and the protection against enhanced natural radioactivity. Among the fields of work in the area of non-ionising radiation are the protection against UV radiation and the effects of mobile communication technology, precautionary protection of the population, employees in the working world and patients in the medical field being of decisive significance. Important part of radiation protection precaution are our continuous measurements of radioactivity in the environment. Our fields of responsibility are radiological health protection, environmental and physico-technical radiation protection, radiological emergency management, nuclear safety, the federal custody of nuclear fuels, the management (disposal) of radioactive waste as well as the safety of transport and storage of nuclear fuels.

We pay attention to questions and concerns of the public.

We support the dialogue and within the scope of active public relations work we provide information without delay in a competent and comprehensible way with the objective to inspire confidence in our work.

The continuously developing state-of-the-art of science and technology regarding the protection against radiation risks is the subject, standard and motivation for our work. On this basis we recommend measures and regulations which serve precaution and protection of the population.

Beyond our legal tasks we understand ourselves as service-provider for the public, federal ministries, science, industry and commerce, the medical field, public administration, media and associations. For our superior authority, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, we prepare scientific expert recommendations and assist it in developing legal provisions.

Who we are

We are a scientific-technical Superior Federal Authority in the portfolio of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. BfS was founded in 1989 with the objective to concentrate authorities working in the fields of radiation protection, nuclear safety and radioactive waste management. For this, mainly existing institutions at various sites have been incorporated into the new authority.

How we work technically

To fulfil our tasks in the best possible way and to flexibly meet new challenges, we work interdisciplinarily, assure the quality of our work and make our professional decision-making processes comprehensible. Our structural organisation is based on the respective tasks. Human resources and materials are efficiently applied. We support team work and work in project groups. The work performed by the scientific departments is supported by the Central Department. Advanced communication and data processing technology as well as management instruments serve to optimise our work. As an authority working in the environmental field we serve as an example and, therefore, work with an awareness of the environment, in an energy-saving way and efficiently using natural resources.

We comply with our sociopolitical responsibility by

• Making the fundamental principles of practised radiation protection transparent,
• Taking up concerns of the population,
• Supporting the dialogue between specialists and sociopolitically relevant groups,
• Contributing to the forming of opinions and consents in society through carrying out interdisciplinary discussion forums,
• Showing possibilities and restraints of science,
• Prospectivly showing problems and need for actions,
• Making people aware of their own responsibility for health and the protection of the environment,
• Giving practical behavioural recommendations.

To maintain our competence and the quality of our work we co-operate with other scientific areas and collaborate actively within national and international, in particular European bodies, by evaluating and considering their results as well as bringing our own findings up for discussion. Apart from our technicoscientific competence we also have sociological and social science competence.

We are convinced that basic research and applied research remain indispensable, also in the future, for the fulfilling of our tasks. Only in that way can safety in the fields of radiation protection for man and the environment, nuclear technology and nuclear waste management develop further. We are engaged in and initiate research.

How we work together

To maintain and further develop our competence we support systematically training and higher qualification of the staff members as well as their specialist and personal possibilities for development. The basis for this is a personnel development concept.

• We implement occupational equality of men and women.
• As far as this is possible we introduce family-friendly working conditions like flexible working hours, part-time jobs and telecommuting.
• We integrate handicapped people in our office.
• We train and employ trainees, research scholarship holders and guest scientists.
• We act in social responsibility.

The contact with each other is characterised by mutual respect and by high regard of the work of the other colleagues. Loyalty is the basis of our co-operation. We communicate openly with each other. Informing, involving and feedback are essential elements of communication. The flow of information over all sites is guaranteed.

The co-operative way of management and the delegation of responsibility play an important role in our office. In all areas where this is possible persons with leadership function make decisions in close collaboration with staff members. Within the scope of clear competencies and directives, short-term, comprehensible, proper and reliable decisions are made and justified. We are ready to question our work results and the contact with each other. We solve conflicts instead of ignoring them.

Through specialist knowledge and creativity in connection with a motivating work atmosphere as well as reliability and commitment we achieve our work results.

We are aware that we all together shape the image of BfS.

The objectives of these Guiding Principles are implemented through concrete measures in a way that can be verified. They are a binding work basis for everyone. We are aware that the Guiding Principles are not static but develop further dynamically.