Paulini seeks greater political support for emergency preparedness

Collaboration within the Radiological Situation Centre

The President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Inge Paulini, has called for lasting support for radiological emergency preparedness. She recalled the disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima and made reference to the war in Ukraine. "All of this goes to show that we must be well prepared at all times", she said at a public hearing of the Bundestag Committee on the Environment in Berlin on 15 March.

The hearing was held as an "exchange of views on the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima as well as the current situation in Zaporizhzhia".

Even after the last nuclear reactors are shut down, Paulini warned that Germany will continue to need strong emergency preparedness measures and also referred to possible threat scenarios such as explosions of nuclear weapons and cyberattacks. "This will be no less true following the phase-out of nuclear energy in Germany, because radiation does not stop at national borders and there are existing or planned nuclear power plants in Germany's vicinity."

BfS as the central authority for risk assessment

Paulini said that the BfS is the central authority for assessing the situation and risks to the population in Germany and that it has kept a constant watch on the situation in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. "In the last year, we've seen that national and international collaboration works very well thanks to effective preparation and intensive exercises", says Paulini.

President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Dr Inge Paulini

At the same time, she called for greater support from government: for instance, she said that the Federal Radiological Situation Centre (RLZ) must be recognised as part of Germany’s critical infrastructure. Otherwise, there could be situations whereby the fuel supply for measuring vehicles could not be ensured in an emergency, for example.

Within the Federal Radiological Situation Centre, experts from the Federal Environment Ministry, the BfS and other institutions work together and continually evaluate the situation with regard to possible hazards due to released radioactivity.

Renewed awareness of the risk of a nuclear accident

On 26 April 1986, the world's biggest-ever accident at a nuclear power station took place in Chernobyl in what is now Ukraine. On 11 March 2011, the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima was hit by an earthquake and a resulting tsunami, which led to a reactor accident.

Since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, there has once again been heightened awareness of the risk of an accident at a nuclear power plant. For example, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been the target of multiple attacks over the past year. In addition to the hostilities, the biggest risk factors from the BfS's point of view are the power supply and the working conditions of the staff.