SUMMARY OF RAIL SHIPMENTS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY (1972- 1997) - 2S YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

The Federal Railway Office (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt, Bonn) is responsible for the supervision of all railway-shipments of radioactive material within the Federal Republic of Germany. Up to this responsibility the Federal Railway Office has a database dealing with all shipments and all incidents and accidents during the transport of radioactive material by rail and the total amount of all railway-shipments during the time-periode from 1972 to 1996. During this time period the safety record was excellent, no severe rail-accident during transport of radioactive materials occured. A brief description of the situation of the Federal Railway Office, the number of shipments during the 25-years time-period and the supervision-situation on the main transport-routes will be described in the paper.