[en] The duties cover tasks relative to radiation protection and safety on behalf of the institutes and departments of Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe and environmental monitoring for the whole Nuclear Research Center as well as own research and development work, mainly performed under the Nuclear Research Center and the Nuclear Safeguards Project. The centers of interest of R and D activities were: investigation of the atmospheric diffusion in the micro- and meso-scale, study of the radiological consequences of accidents in reactors under probabilistic aspects, implementation of nuclear fuel safeguarding systems, improvements in radiation protection measurement technology. This report gives details of the different duties, indicates the results of 1977 routine measurements, and reports about new results of investigations and developments of the working groups of the department. (orig.)