Reportable event

As Reportable event is known in the field of nuclear technology an operating event ( malfunction or fault ) in a nuclear facility , such. B. a nuclear power plant that has to be reported to the competent authorities due to existing regulations. The term includes minor and unspectacular irregularities as well as the most serious accidents.

Legal basis

In 1975 the obligation was introduced for nuclear power plant operators to report events to the supervisory authority according to certain nationally standardized criteria. These were classified as follows and existed until 1985:

category	event	Reporting deadline	Examples
A.	Incidents and incidents that are directly significant in terms of safety	2 days	Releases of radioactive substances above the maximum approved release rates or absolute values, personal injuries if they occurred as consequential damage to events to be reported here, damage to the pressurized enclosure of the entire primary circuit (in the case of boiling water reactors including the turbine) combined with the release of activity or coolant leaks, malfunctions or failures during operation or, if required, on systems whose availability must be guaranteed in terms of safety, etc.
B.	Incidents and incidents that are potentially significant in terms of safety	8 days	Unplanned releases of radioactive substances below the approved release rates or absolute values, malfunctions or failures in the event of a test on systems whose availability must be guaranteed in terms of safety, failures or damage to the primary coolant circulation system, damage to the pressurized enclosure of the entire primary circuit and the secondary circuit as well as to fixtures, failures or damage on monitoring and cooling devices for fuel assemblies in the dry storage facility or in the storage pool, operating errors or errors or gaps in operating instructions and test regulations, etc.
C.	Other incidents and events	14 days	Failures, damage and weak points that have restricted the functional reliability of the system listed in the safety report and deviations from specifications, insofar as the specified limit has been established for safety reasons, construction and material-related and operational problems, including during the construction phase, which go beyond routine cases.

A fundamental obligation to report such events has been in the Radiation Protection Ordinance since April 1977 . There it says in § 51 :

"The occurrence of a radiological emergency situation, an accident, an incident or any other safety-relevant event must be reported immediately to the nuclear regulatory authority and, if necessary, also to the authority responsible for public safety and order and the authorities responsible for disaster control."

In 1985 the reporting criteria from 1975 were revised and classified into the categories S, E, N and V:

category	event	Reporting deadline
S (quick message)	Incidents that must be reported to the supervisory authority immediately so that it can initiate inspections or take action in the shortest possible time. This also includes incidents that indicate acute safety-related deficiencies	Immediately by phone / fax Using the form, which must be sent no later than the 5th working day (Monday – Friday) after the incident has been recognized.
E (breaking news)	Incidents that do not require immediate action by the supervisory authority, but the cause of which must be clarified for security reasons and remedied within a reasonable period. These are, for example, incidents that are potentially - but not immediately - significant in terms of safety.	By telephone or fax during the business hours of the supervisory authority Outside of business hours according to the special regulation of the supervisory authority Using the form, which must be sent no later than the 5th working day (Monday – Friday) after the incident has been recognized.
N (normal message)	Incidents of general safety relevance about which the supervisory authority must be informed. These are usually incidents that go beyond routine operational events and are important in terms of the BMI safety criteria.	Using the form, which must be sent no later than the 5th working day (Monday – Friday) after the incident has been recognized.
V (events before commissioning)	Incidents about which the supervisory authority must be informed with regard to the later safe operation of the system.	Using the form, which must be sent within a reasonable period of time, no later than the 10th working day (Monday-Friday) after the incident has been recognized.

The obligation to report accidents and incidents has been specified in the Ordinance on Nuclear Safety Officers and the Reporting of Incidents and Other Events (AtSMV) since 1992 . The regulation is applicable to systems which according to § 7 of the Atomic Energy approved, so to nuclear power plants , research reactors , the fuel fabrication plant Lingen , the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and the abandoned reprocessing plant in Karlsruhe . The provisions on the reporting obligation also apply to the on- site interim storage facilities for spent fuel elements approved in accordance with Section 6 AtG .

Annexes 1 to 3 of the AtSMV contain the criteria according to which an event must be reported. Appendix 1 applies to nuclear reactors , Appendix 2 to other systems and Appendix 3 to contamination on transport containers . A standardized report form is used for reporting.

Events by reporting category

year	Category N	Category E.	Category S	Category V
2017	51	2	0	-
2016	69	0	1	-
2015	58	2	0	-
2014	68	0	0	-
2013	77	1	0	-
2012	79	0	0	-
2011	104	0	0	-
2010	77	3	0	-
2009	101	2	0	-
2008	88	4th	0	0
2007	112	6th	0	0
2006	126	4th	0	0
2005	133	2	0	0
2004	148	6th	0	0
2003	137	0	0	0
2002	157	10	0	0
2001	118	7th	2	0
2000	92	2	0	0
1999	120	1	0	0
1998	132	4th	0	0
1997	114	3	0	0
1996	133	2	0	0
1995	150	2	0	0
1994	159	1	1	0
1993	177	2	0	0
1992	221	2	0	0
1991	233	10	0	0
1990	214	8th	1	1
1989	290	10	0	2
1988	283	10	0	3
1987	282	11	0	10
1986	316	11	0	7th
1985	60	5	0	3
Revision 1985
year	Category C	Category B	Category A
1985	153	18th	0
1984	118	31	0
1983	107	28	1
1982	117	25th	0
1981	107	45	0
1980	89	107	5
1979	61	156	1

Evaluation according to the IAEA INES scale

In order to make the safety-related significance of a nuclear event more transparent and also more understandable for the public, the IAEA introduced the 7-point International Rating Scale for Nuclear Events (INES) in 1990 . Operational disruptions are assigned to level 1 there. Levels 2 and 3 correspond to accidents, and from level 4 we speak of accidents. A level 0 was added later for events with no safety relevance.

The member states of the IAEA have undertaken to report reportable events of level 2 and higher to the IAEA, where they are published on its website.

In Germany, all reportable events are classified by the operator on the basis of this scale. The classification will later be checked by the supervisory authority and the incident reporting center of the Federal Office for Nuclear Waste Disposal Safety (BfS) in cooperation with the experts. Three aspects are taken into account for the classification:

the radiological effects outside the facility
the radiological effects in the facility and
the impairment of safety precautions.

With the help of these criteria, the reportable events in Germany were classified as follows:

year	Level 0	step 1	≥ level 2
2017	53	0	0
2016	69	1	0
2015	60	0	0
2014	68	0	0
2013	77	1	0
2012	79	0	0
2011	104	0	0
2010	80	0	0
2009	103	0	0
2008	91	1	0
2007	116	2	0
2006	130	0	0
2005	135	0	0
2004	147	7th	0
2003	134	3	0
2002	154	13	0
2001	120	5	2
2000	91	3	0
1999	120	1	0
1998	132	3	1
1997	114	3	0
1996	129	6th	0
1995	151	1	0
1994	158	3	0
1993	173	6th	0
1992	216	7th	0
1991	232	11	0

The ≥ stage 2 events were:

August 27, 2001 ( Philippsburg 2 KKP-2 nuclear power plant ):
Below the specified boron concentration in three flood tanks (level 2)

August 10, 2001 (KKP-2):
Falling below the target level in the four flood tanks when starting up the system (stage 2)

June 6, 1998 ( Unterweser KKU nuclear power plant ):
Unavailability of a live steam safety valve station when requested (level 2)

Web links

Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management : Reportable events
Link to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Individual evidence

↑ Annual reports on reportable events. Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management , accessed on December 5, 2017 .
↑ Reportable events, safety in nuclear technology
↑ Annual reports on reportable events. Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management , accessed on December 5, 2017 .

[1] Annual reports on reportable events. Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management , accessed on December 5, 2017 .

[2] Reportable events, safety in nuclear technology

[3] Annual reports on reportable events. Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management , accessed on December 5, 2017 .