Many people worry about releases of radioactivity because of the war in Ukraine. According to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, there is no reason for this. According to the authorities, the available radiological readings are within the normal range. If you want, you can use an official map to view the gamma local dose rate (ODL) at the approximately 1,700 operational measuring points in Germany.
Anyone who is currently worried about increased radioactivity in Germany should take a look at the official map from the Federal Office for Radiation Protection. There, the authority lists the current values of the approximately 1,700 operational measuring points of the so-called ODL measuring network in Germany.
ODL stands for local dose rate of the measured gamma radiation. The higher the specified measured value, the higher the radiation exposure. You can use the map interactively and, for example, call up the values of the measuring points in your area. As reported by the BfS, there is currently no risk of radiological effects on Germany from the war in Ukraine.
Interactive map: radioactivity in Germany
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection provides an interactive map on which you can view the data from around 1,700 measuring points in Germany. By default, the map shows the Federal Republic of Germany and neighboring countries. The circles shown represent the clustered measuring points. Depending on the zoom level, the number of ODL probes is summarized in a circle. The color indicates how high the radiation is in the area.
The legend that appears gives you a breakdown of the color coding. The measured values are given in the unit µSv/h (microsievert per hour). The daily average is currently 0.086 µSv/h, with the lowest value being 0.039 µSv/h and the highest being 0.176 µSv/h.
You can activate the transmission of your location for the map, but you must then explicitly allow this again in the browser. A full-screen display and a list view of all probe locations, which you can also search by keyword, are also possible. For the locations you can view the course of values as a graphic, practically also with the probability of precipitation.
Understand radioactivity readings
The natural ODL in Germany is between 0.05 μSv/h and 0.2 μSv/h, depending on local conditions. The radiation that was released as a result of the reactor accident in Chernobyl in 1986 only makes a small contribution to the measured “natural” local gamma dose rate today.
Short-term increases of up to about a factor of 2 occur when radioactive by-products of the naturally occurring, radioactive inert gas radon are washed out of the atmosphere by precipitation and deposited on the ground. Snowfall can also lead to a rain-typical increase in the ODL, especially if the ground was previously snow-free.
However, it must always be noted that the hourly measured values shown are untested raw data that may not be free of technical interference. There is only cause for concern in the case of radiological events if a significantly increased ODL persists for a longer period of time (eg 1 day and longer), or if the increase exceeds a factor of 2 and there is no technical fault.