Message to residents: false alarm at the research reactor BER II on 7 March 2018

We wold like to inform you that a false alarm was triggered at 9:19 p.m. on Wednesday the 7th of March 2018 at the Berliner Experimental Reactor BER II. At the time the alarm went off, BER II was still operating normally and continuously. After clarifying the trigger of the false alarm, a verbal all-clear was given over the campus PA system.

Because of this false alarm, two separate one-minute wailing tones were heard over the HZB grounds and in its vicinity. At this point in time, BER II was still in continuous, faultless operation and did not have to be shut down. The operating staff of BER II acted upon regulations and worked through the alert chain, and informed all responsible parties of HZB and the supervisory authority. The head of reactor operations, Dr. Stephan Welzel, went immediately to BER II, personally assured himself of the faultless operation and, together with the personnel on duty, identified the cause of the false alarm.

The cause of the false alarm was a technical fault in a pushbutton alarm. A service technician replaced the defective pushbutton alarm on the same night. Once the cause of the fault had been clarified, the verbal all-clear was given over the campus PA system.