atw 2019-03

atw Vol. 64 (2019) | Issue 3 ı March
0, the Facts Remain ...
Dear reader, the number “0” certainly has a special meaning in the world of numbers, science and also in everyday
life. For some it is a blessing, for others it is a curse. As the 37 th element in the roulette game, it guarantees the gambling
casino a competitive advantage below the line on probabilities; as zero in philosophy, it represents nothing.
Zero has a place in algebra and contrary to its “worthlessness”
it is very meaningful: zero (0) is neither positive
nor negative. It is completely harmless in addition and
subtraction – it does not change a number in the result. In
multiplication it makes everything null and void out of
any number, no matter how large. As a divisor it is even
forbidden in division, because it would overturn our
complete number system.
Since such numbers and number systems can be used
independently of languages, they are also suitable for
depicting connections uniformly and carefully, i.e. in an
internationally understandable way.
In the internationally agreed language of nuclear
power, the “International Nuclear and Radiological Event
Scale – INES” is certainly of particular importance as a
­recognised classification system.
Since 1990, i.e. for almost 30 years, events in the field of
nuclear technology have been classified according to this
scale, which was developed by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency
(NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD). On the one hand, the INES scale
should enable technical experts to explain the safety
­significance of an event to the public in an understandable
way. On the other hand, the public can interpret the
­significance of events just as easily and clearly by means of
absolute numbers. The INES evaluation scale comprises
7 levels for the events recorded: from level 1 to level 7. The
classification into the levels is based on safety-oriented or
radiological criteria. Events of level 1 to 3 are classified as
incident and events of level 4 to 7 are classified as accident
with increasing consequences.
In order to also record events that are neither incident
nor accident and are generally referred to internationally
as operating deviation, the level zero (0) below the actual
INES scale has also been introduced. According to the
­internationally valid and binding definition, these events
have “no safety significance”.
The application of the INES scale in 74 countries
worldwide today – including all countries operating
nuclear power plants – and the extension of the scale to
other areas, such as medicine and the industrial application
of radioisotopes and ionizing radiation sources,
­underscores the practical benefits and broad acceptance of
the scale. In addition, the IAEA contributes to the international
public transparency of event reports by posting
infor mation on the Internet platform www-news.iaea.org.
The INES scale is not intended and not suitable for
performance comparisons between the participating
countries or for deriving safety-related developments
from statistics – this has been agreed and recognised
by all participating countries. Nevertheless, in the media
context, “chronicles of incidents” or “evaluations” based
on INES reports are sometimes almost ritualised. Germany
is a well-known pioneer in this field and so the media,
under the title “AKW Brokdorf und Grohnde melden
meisten Störfälle” (“Brokdorf and Grohnde nuclear power
plants report most incidents”), knew before the end of
2018 on an internet blog post as a source that with
79 incidents in 2018, “German nuclear power plants
would have reported as many as they had not for 7 years”.
However, all these incidents that have been cleverly
verbally pushed into the realm of near catastrophes are
­INES “zero” events, i.e. they have no safety significance
and have no connection with the term “incident” nor the
term “accident” – reading helps, understanding even more.
It will now be a bit complicated for the interested citizen
to get his own interpretation. The individual reports on
“Reportable Events” available in the WWW at the Federal
Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management can
be used to evaluate all reports and thus the safety-related
“zero” summary for Germany's nuclear power plant
operation in 2018 can be drawn – an optically differentiated
presentation of these internationally agreed facts
based on the INES criteria would already be helpful for the
interested public at this point.
Beyond journalistic attention, an evaluation of the
­reportable events for Germany since their first application
in 1991 shows that almost all (99 %) events are assigned to
category “0” of the INES scale; i.e. with the participation
and after determination by the responsible state authorities,
events are "without safety-related" significance (this
is no statement in terms of statistics!).
The summary is: INES 0 = no “fault”, no “incident”, no
“accident” – “0” in all its fullness of “nothing” and also
actually a "zero report".
Christopher Weßelmann
– Editor in Chief –
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EDITORIAL
Editorial
0, the Facts Remain ...