Airborne radiometric measurements in the frame of the ARM08 exercise

The measurement flights of the exercise ARM08 were performed between 26th and 29th of May 2008 under the direction of G. Scharding of the National Emergency Operations Centre (NAZ) and coordination by the Expert Group for Aeroradiometrics (FAR). According to the alternating schedule of the annual ARM exercises, the environs of the nuclear power plants Beznau (KKB) and Leibstadt (KKL), of the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) research facility and of the Intermediate Storage Facility for Nuclear Waste (ZWILAG) were inspected. The measurements showed similar results to those obtained in former years. The measurements above cities were continued with the cities of Basel, Berne and Geneva. Western Switzerland was largely spared from Chernobyl fallout, a fact which was reflected in the results of the airborne gammaspectroscopic (ARM) measurements. The military measuring teams performed the exercise completely autonomous. For the first time, technical and scientific support was supplied by PSI and the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) as on-call service. (author)