Radon pathways from the soil to the surface

Next to smoking, inhaling radon is one of the greatest risks of developing lung cancer. Radon can rise from the subsoil into buildings and accumulate there. In order to keep the health risk as low as possible, a value of 300 Becquerel per cubic metre has been established in the Radiation Protection Act as a guideline for an increased radon concentration indoors.

The Radiation Protection Ordinance substantiates this. On one hand, the ordinance lays down criteria for delimiting radon precautionary areas (i.e. areas in which special precautions are to be taken to protect against radon). The federal states were required to identify and designate radon precautionary areas by 2020. Protection against radon must be ensured in the home as well as in schools and kindergartens and at the workplace.

The regulation lists measures that can be taken to minimise the health risk. These measures include radon-proof building materials or equipment for removing radon-containing air from the subsoil. In the radon precaution areas, at least one of the measures specified in the ordinance must be observed when new houses, apartments, and workplaces are built.

As a result of the phase-out decision of 2011, all nuclear power plants in Germany will be decommissioned by 2022 and must therefore also be dismantled. It is clear that highly radioactive substances (e.g. from the reactor core) must be disposed of with the utmost caution.

The handling of all other materials is also clearly regulated. The Radiation Protection Ordinance provides for a scientifically and legally sound procedure for determining and establishing the radiological harmlessness of a substance. This is referred to as release. In addition to construction residues from former nuclear power plants, this also applies to materials from medicine, industry, science, and technology.

Weakly radioactive material that leads to negligible radiation exposure of the population can be fed into the economic cycle or disposed of. The criterion here is 10 microsieverts per year. For comparison: The annual radiation exposure from natural radiation sources is, on average, more than one hundred times higher.

The release concept makes an important contribution to the practical implementation of the phase-out of nuclear energy in Germany. In particular, this avoids the need to dispose of large quantities of radiologically insignificant material in a final repository.

The radiation protection register monitors compliance with the limit values for individuals exposed to radiation for occupational reasons. As part of these tasks, every year the Federal Office for Radiation Protection records approx. 3.5 million official dose and radiation passport reports from around 100 different measuring points and authorities from all over Germany in the central radiation protection register.

The Radiation Protection Act stipulates that products or processes in which humans and the environment may be exposed to ionising radiation are comprehensively examined and evaluated by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection if there are doubts concerning their justification. These include, for example, medical radiation applications or the use of radiation in consumer goods or type-approved devices. The purpose of the assessment is to weigh the economic, social, or other benefits against any potential adverse health effect.

The Radiation Protection Ordinance now contains detailed regulations for this test procedure.

Ionising radiation is increasingly being used in medical diagnostics and therapy. As a result of technical defects or human error, patients may be unjustifiably exposed to too high a dose. In order to learn from such cases, the Radiation Protection Act provides for a nationwide reporting and information system for significant incidents un medicine (BeVoMed). The Radiation Protection Ordinance defines specific reporting criteria and reporting routes in detail.

Significant incidents are to be reported to the BfS via the competent authorities. The BfS has set up the web-based system BeVoMed (Significant incidents in medicine) for this purpose.

• Ordinance on Protection against the Harmful Effects of Ionising Radiation (Radiation Protection Ordinance – StrlSchV)
• Ordinance on Protection against the Harmful Effects of Non-ionising Radiation in Human Applications (NiSV)
• Ordinance on the Further Modernisation of the Radiation Protection Law