Emergency plan and emergency preparedness
Since 1 January 2009, the Asse II mine is subject to the provisions of nuclear law. As responsible operator, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) has to ensure the safe operation of the nuclear facility in order to be able to decommission the facility in an orderly manner.
Emergency preparedness according to mining law and nuclear law
Regarding the safe operation of a mine the Mining Law stipulates the "precaution against foreseeable major events" (§ 11 General Mining Regulations). Therefore, the BfS has developed an emergency and alarm plan for the Asse mine which is being maintained and updated on a regular basis.
Furthermore, nuclear law provides for further emergency planning in the form of systematic emergency preparedness. Among others, it is part of the safe operation of a nuclear facility under nuclear law to take measures to
- prevent events from occurring where it is neither possible to continue to operate the facility nor to decommission it in an orderly manner,
or - if this is not possible -
- reduce the consequences of such events.
In the summer of 2009, the BfS presented for the first time strategic considerations for a systematic emergency preparedness, which have been developed further since. For this purpose, an accompanying technical examination will be carried out on the basis of calculations; experts refer to an "analysis of consequences".