Pursuant to the Atomic Energy Act, supreme authorities of the Länder are competent for the granting, withdrawal and revocation of licences for nuclear installations as well as for their regulatory oversight and inspection. The Länder authorities are supervised by and subject to the directives of the Federation (Bund), who issues ordinances and general administrative regulations. more...

The obligation for the licensees of nuclear facilities to report such events to the competent nuclear regulatory authority was made legal and binding with the Nuclear Safety Officer and Reporting Ordinance – AtSMV of October 14, 1992 (published in the Federal Law Gazette BGBl. I p. 1766).

After an initial engineering evaluation, each reportable event is assigned to one of the four individual reporting categories as given by the Nuclear Safety Officer and Reporting Ordinance (AtSMV). These categories particularly take into account the aspect that the authority has to be able to take  precautionary measures irrespective of the actual significance of the event.