The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) is a scientific and technical higher federal authority with approx. 600 employees within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). The tasks of the BfS include radiological emergency protection, the monitoring of environmental radioactivity, medical and occupational radiation protection as well as protection against ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. In the area of radiological emergency response in particular, there is very close cooperation with police and non-police emergency response authorities at state and federal level. Nuclear-specific emergency response is an essential element of situation management, which becomes active if, for example, radioactive sources are misused outside of official control. In addition, the BfS has the densest monitoring network in the world, with 1700 probes for measuring local dose rates.
In addition to its technical expertise, the BfS also aims to advance radiation protection in Germany and maintain it at a high level through research. In addition to its own research, the BfS also conducts departmental research funded by the BMUV. In the area of radiological emergency protection, research is carried out in the field of measurement technology as well as in the area of software solutions and the use of artificial intelligence in data evaluation.
