Specialized and technical advancement of the BFS radioactivity measurement network

After a short report on the general structural development of the BfS radioactivity measurement network, some specialized and technical advancements are presented which aim at qualitative improvements of the measuring results and at an acceleration of the data transfer in case of a nuclear event: In an intensive operation phase the measuring data are collected from the measuring posts and offered to decision makers in a cadence of 10 minutes now instead of 2 hours before. In the surroundings of nuclear plants the BfS radioactivity measurement network cooperates with the nuclear plant remote monitoring systems of the Laender with the effect that both networks complement each other. To ensure the comparability of the measured data of different measuring posts, criteria for the choice, documentation and evaluation of the site locations have been defined and correspondingly the posts have been evaluated. The properties of the gamma dose rate probes have been examined and a procedure for periodic examination of the environmental conditions close to the measuring posts has been developed and introduced. The development of a new generation of data collecting units enables different organisations to directly access the data from the measuring posts and furthermore these new data loggers provide improved techniques of data evaluation. (orig.)