Should the measured values in Germany rise sharply, for example following an attack on Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the probes in this country would issue a warning message within a minute. Before that, however, the sensors in countries closer to Ukraine would sound the alarm. “We are in constant international exchange and can also view the measurement data from here,” says Florian Gering, head of the radiological emergency response department at the BfS. The sensors around the Ukrainian facility in Zaporizhia might still be called up there even on the night of the fighting “and without any abnormalities”.
It is currently said that the plant’s reactors are being shut down, at least in part, in a controlled manner. But even if radioactivity were released, it is considered very unlikely that the radiation would reach Germany: earlier measurements over a period of one year showed that the so-called westerly wind situation, which is dominant in western and central Europe, might result in pollutants escaping a good four-fifths of the time would blow east and thus towards Russia. “This also strongly suggests that the Russians would not risk an attack on the nuclear reactors out of self-protection,” says a German civil protection officer.
