Society for plant and reactor safety
The Society for Plant and Reactor Safety (GRS) gGmbH is a technical and scientific research and expert organization with around 450 employees, including more than 350 scientists. Your main task is to evaluate and improve the safety of technical systems and to further develop the protection of people and the environment from the dangers and risks of such systems. The focus of the work is on the areas of nuclear safety, the disposal of radioactive waste and radiation protection. In these specialist areas, GRS supports the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety through expert reports, scientific advice and an emergency center. In addition, GRS researches and advises on issues relating to technical environmental protection and in the field of renewable energies, for example the disposal of chemo-toxic waste and geothermal energy.
The shareholders of GRS are the Federal Republic of Germany and the technical inspection associations with 46% each, and the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria with 4% each . The GRS Supervisory Board is headed by the Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter .
History of the GRS
The GRS was created in 1976 by merging the "Laboratory for Reactor Control and Plant Safety" (LRA) at the Technical University of Munich and the "Institute for Reactor Safety of the Technical Monitoring Associations e. V. "(IRS) in Cologne to what was then the" Society for Reactor Safety ". It started its business operations on January 1st, 1977. When GRS was founded, it was initially located in Cologne and Garching near Munich .
In October 1990, the GRS opened a new office in Berlin , which about 40 scientists from being liquidated SAAS of DDR offered new jobs. Since then, GRS has had a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of Eastern European reactors.
In January 1992 the "Institute for Security Technology GmbH (ISTec)" was founded as a GRS subsidiary with around 30 employees. On April 1, 2014, the institute was taken over by TÜV Rheinland.
In August 1992, GRS and the French IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire) founded a European economic interest group ( EWIV ) in equal shares : Riskaudit IRSN / GRS International, based in Fontenay-aux-Roses , France. Riskaudit also has offices in Moscow (Russia - closed in 2012) and Kiev (Ukraine), which work closely with GRS and IRSN.
In 1995, the GRS received a further operational part in Braunschweig with the GSF - Research Center for Environment and Health through the transfer of the research part of the GSF Institute for Deep Disposal. The Braunschweig site is now home to the GRS repository research center.
Others
Companies with a similar range of tasks also exist in other countries, for example:
- in France the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN). The IRSN is a partner - jointly and in equal shares with GRS - in the company Riskaudit IRSN / GRS International ( European Economic Interest Grouping, EWIV) based in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. Riskaudit also has offices in Moscow (Russia) and Kiev (Ukraine) that work closely with IRSN and GRS.
- in Japan the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES)
Web links
- Official website
- GRS company brochure
- Institut de Radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire (comparable government-sponsored organization in France)
- bundestag.de: List of 'forwarding messages' that GRS compiles on behalf of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency and sends to the operators of German nuclear power plants: PDF, 8 pages, August 2011