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Basic Recommendations

The Basic Recommendations for Emergency Preparedness in the Vicinity of Nuclear Installations aim to ensure that the Länder authorities’ emergency plans for the areas surrounding specific nuclear facilities across Germany are based, as far as possible, on common principles. The Recommendations include, in particular:

  • the nuclear facility operator’s obligation to cooperate with the disaster control authority,
  • the basic principles for emergency planning in the vicinity of nuclear installations, and
  • information and guidance on alerts.

Annexes to the Recommendations cover in detail issues such as intervention reference levels, thyroid blocking and the establishment and operation of emergency care centres. There is also a glossary of terms and templates with standard wording which can be used when producing information for the public. After the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan, the planning areas defined in the Basic Recommendations and the related measures were expanded. A new Recommendation, entitled Planning Areas for Emergency Response near Nuclear Power Plants, was published by the German Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) in 2014.