Recording reportable events which have occurred in nuclear facilities in the Federal Republic of Germany

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).

The national regulatory reporting procedure comprises four reporting categories with different notification periods – depending on the immediate importance of such information for the regulatory authority.

In addition to the regulatory reporting procedure according to the Ordinance cited above, the licensees of nuclear facilities also categorise reportable events according to the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) employed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This scale is used to inform the public on the significance of a reportable event regarding the safety of the facility and whether or not it had or could have had any radiological impact on the public or the environment.

The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) comprises levels 1 to 7 for events with safety significance and level 0 for events with no or hardly any safety significance. Events can thus be categorised in eight levels according to INES (see table). The different levels are defined by their number and a short description.

Incident Registration Centre

The Incident Registration Centre operated by BfS is charged with the central collection and documentation of information on all reportable events occurring in nuclear facilities (i.e. nuclear power plants, research reactors, nuclear fuel cycle facilities and waste disposal facilities) which are reported by the licensees to the competent nuclear regulatory authority and in turn forwarded to BfS. The Incident Registration Centre at BfS assesses these events on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). With these activities BfS supports BMU in its task to inform the general public of such events. Within the overall activities on operational experience feedback such systematic assessments help to prevent failures in the operation of nuclear facilities before serious damage can occur.