January
GRS begins the year 2011 with 449 staff at its four company locations of Köln, Garching near Munich, Braunschweig and Berlin.

  
The seminar on "Fundamentals of the physical protection of nuclear installations" is the start to a series of nine seminars that are specially devised for the further qualification of regulatory authority personnel and are offered as part of the GRS Academy  in 2011.

 
GRS representatives take part in the plenary meeting of the European Clearinghouse in Petten (NL). This European Clearinghouse, which was founded  by the European Commission in 2008, enables above all countries with an emerging nuclear energy programme to gain access to findings from the evaluation of international operating experience.

February
GRS publishes the proceedings of the repository workshop „Fundamental Issues of Hydrogeology“ (GRS Report no. 264) . At the workshop, which took place at the end of 2009, the results of the studies carried out so far of the hydrogeological conditions in northern Germany were discussed.

GRS representatives go to China to visit several research institutes and the Chinese nuclear safety expert organisation. They sign co-operation agreements that provide i.a. for an exchange of scientific calculation codes used in nuclear safety research.

March
On 11 March 2011, the worst reactor accident since Chernobyl occurs in Japan. Immediately after the event, the crisis team of GRS starts collecting information about the accident, evaluating it and keeping ministries, the media and the general public informed about the situation at the site. In doing so, GRS publishes from 12 March onwards all the situation reports prepared for the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU)  - initially on its website and later on as part of its specially established Fukushima information portal. In the wake of the accident, the BMU and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) ask GRS to carry out various research projects to analyse amongst other things the exact accident sequence.

Under the auspices of the Reactor Safety Commission (RSK), GRS carries out extensive work in connection with the safety review of the German power reactors – the so-called "stress test". For this purpose, experts of GRS co-ordinate review teams that include further experts from the German Technical Inspection Agencies and other expert organisations. The first phase of the review is concluded at the beginning of May, with the RSK publishing its assessment in the middle of the month.

The Trainee Programme of GRS enters its third round: three graduates start preparing to become professional experts in the field of nuclear safety over a period of twelve months.

April
26 April 2011 sees the 25th anniversary of the reactor accident at Chernobyl. In view of the occasion, GRS publishes a report  providing information about the accident, the work done over the past 25 years, and the current status of its own projects at the Chernobyl site.

GRS participates in the so-called "Girls Day", a campaign in which a wide range of professions and activities is presented to girls aged 10+. At GRS Braunschweig, 15 girls have a close look around the geoscientific laboratory.

May
On behalf of the BMU, GRS organises a meeting of experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the management of the radioactive waste of the former Soviet fleet.

Since the end of May, GRS has been supporting the BMU in the preparation of the German national report for the so-called European Stress Test. On 24 May, the EU had decided that all EU Member States would have to subject their nuclear power plants to such a stress test. The results have to be available by 31 December 2011 in the form of national reports that will subsequently be subjected to reviews by experts from other countries.

June
At GRS Garching, the second leg of ENSTTI training starts. The international European Nuclear Safety Training and Tutoring Institute, of which GRS was a founding member, has been offering  training courses and tutoring in the nuclear field since 2009. Over the next 3 years, ENSTTI will offer 36 weeks of training and 34 months of tutoring in the field of "Nuclear Safety Assessment and Inspection", with sponsorship from the EU. The IAEA has also announced that it will sponsor scholarship holders.

As part of a project dealing with radiation protection outside nuclear installations, GRS conducts a workshop with participants from 10 different federal "Länder". The workshop serves for the exchange of experience between GRS and the Länder authorities on methods of supervision. A further event is planned for 2012.

With its publication "Scientific Codes - Developed and Used at GRS", GRS offers the specialist community an overview of the simulation codes that have been developed and are used in-house. The first volume introduces the codes from the field of reactor safety, further volumes are to follow.

July
GRS publishes the first results of the Preliminary Gorleben Safety Analysis (VSG). The aim of this research project is to make a comprehensible assessment, in light of the findings so far, of whether a safe repository at the Gorleben site might be possible and if so, under what conditions. Apart from the development of emplacement and closure concepts for the final disposal of radioactive waste in rock salt, a further focus of the project is on the identification of the need for further investigations and exploration with a view to future safety analyses.

The members of the European TSO Network (ETSON)  convene at GRS Cologne for a workshop on the Fukushima accident. On this occasion, they decide to set up working group on "Emergency Preparedness". In this group, experts will be working on ways of better networking the crisis centres of the ETSON member organisations and the Japanese expert organisation JNES. One aim in this connection is also the close collaboration with the EU.

As an ETSON member, GRS also takes part in the preparation of the foundation of the TSO Forum at the IAEA, to take place in Vienna in January 2012. In this Forum, TSOs from all over the world are to work together. The foundation of the TSO Forum was decided at the 55th General Conference of the IAEA in June 2011.

August
GRS signs a co-operation agreement with the US Energy Research Inc. (ERI) on collaboration in research and assessments in the field of nuclear safety.

Together with other European research institutions, GRS begins work on three projects of the 7th  research framework programme of the EU. In the JASMIN project, the scientists deal with the modelling of severe accidents in so-called fast reactors, in which sodium is to be used as coolant instead of water. The aim of the SARGEN_IV project is the development of a standardised method for the assessment of the safety of new fast reactor types that are to be built in Europe in the future. The purpose of the SITEX project is to set up a network of European authorities and expert organisations on the topic of final disposal.

In the summer, young scientists from the member organisations of ETSON meet at the Czech expert organisation UJV in Prague for the Summer Workshop “Lessons learned from the Fukushima NPS accident“ conducted within the framework of the ETSON Junior Staff Programme.

September
Members of the Commission Nationale d'Évaluation, an advisory committee to the French government on the final disposal of radioactive waste, visit GRS Braunschweig on 21 September to exchange views with GRS experts on current issues of repository safety research.

The Dutch economics ministry commissions GRS to assess the provisional safety analysis report for a new EPR-type nuclear power plant in the Netherlands. Furthermore, GRS is to support the Dutch authority in further safety issues as expert advisor.
Six months after the reactor accident at Fukushima, a melting furnace explodes at the Marcoule nuclear site in France. There are numerous media enquiries to GRS asking for an assessment of the situation.

GRS has now joined Facebook with its own company profile.

October
A Workshop in Garching brings a research project on the refinement of the ARTM dispersion model to a close. ARTM is a code system that has been developed jointly by GRS and the Janicke engineering office and which simulates the atmospheric dispersion and deposition of radioactive substances released into the air. A further developed version of ARTM is to be made available on the GRS website in early 2012.

GRS takes part in the of the Garching Research Campus. More than 300 guests show an interest in the different fields of work of GRS.

November
The scientific technical director of GRS, Prof. Frank-Peter Weiß, is appointed member of the  International Nuclear Safety Group (INSAG) by IAEA Director General Amano. This expert committee prepares assessments and recommendations on current and newly arising issues of nuclear safety.

The EUROSAFE Forum takes place in Paris. In 2011, this specialist conference, which is hosted by the French expert organisation IRSN, GRS, and the Belgian BelV, focuses on the theme "Nuclear safety: new challenges, gained experience and public expectations" and attracts more than  450 participants.

In its annual quality management audit, TÜV Rheinland certifies that GRS has amongst other things a commendable training and further qualification programme on offer and that the company's quality management system has been professionally developed.

GRS and the US regulatory authority NRC conclude an Implementation Agreement on co-operation in the field of nuclear safety research.

December
As the year draws to a close, GRS publishes its first report on the research into the reactor accident at Fukushima.

Preparations for the publication of an information brochure on the decommissioning of nuclear installations are almost complete. Publication is scheduled for February 2012.

GRS looks back on a busy year: its staff have worked more than 475,000 hours, dealt with more than 400 different projects, and published more than 70 articles, papers and reports. At the start of 2012, GRS will have 447 members of staff.