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Ionising Radiation > Defense against nuclear hazards
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Defense against nuclear hazards
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The defence against nuclear hazards deals with situations in which radioactive material is mishandled or misused. It can also involve cases where the loss or discovery of radioactive material leads to a potential threat to particular legal interests. For the defence against these kinds of dangers, cooperation between the police and the radiation protection authorities is necessary. The authorities of the German federal states (known as "Bundesländer") are responsible for this task according to the division of competences in the German constitution.
In particularly difficult cases, which the authorities of the Bundesländer cannot deal with alone, the Bundesländer authorities can ask the federal authorities for support. The federal government offers support in the form of the deployment of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) (if the danger is purely from radioactive material) or in the form of the "central federal support group for serious incidents concerning the defence against nuclear hazards" (abbreviated to "ZUB" from the German). The ZUB comprises of employees from the Federal Criminal Police Office, the Federal Police and the BfS.
The BfS has capacity available to deal with the situations outlined above (measurement capacity, knowledge in physics, chemistry, medicine and technical knowledge) and supports forces in the field.
The BfS offers support, in particular in:
- carrying out the radiological situation assessment from the point of view of the potential misuse of the material
- advising the decision makers in all matters regarding radiation protection and the danger posed by specific radioactive materials
- coordinating with foreign authorities and international organisations in the field of the defence against nuclear hazards
- detecting radioactive materials
- identifying radionuclides and estimating their activities
- ensuring radiation protection for the deployed forces
- evaluating the material
- assessing the criticality risks
- estimating the extent of a dispersal of radioactive material and predicting the radiation dose associated with the dispersal
- estimating the radiological consequences of a detonation
- advising on the removal and transport of radioactive material and on decontamination measures
- organising information exchange and carrying out practical exercises together with the police authorities.
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