Research News
The Future of Fukushima
This radar image, obtained with the German Earth-observation satellite TerraSAR-X on 12 March 2011 at 21:43 CET, shows the effect of the tsunami on Higashi-Matsushima Airport and the port of Ishinomaki in the Sendai region on the east coast of Japan. The blue areas indicate flooding; the magenta-coloured areas reveal the extent of the destruction. Credit: DLRIn order to evaluate the extent and the consequences of the nuclear disaster after the earthquake and the tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, the Helmholtz Association established six work groups in the days after the earthquake of 11 March. Headed by the KIT, the experts analyse the situation in the affected reactor blocks and calculate the potential spreading of released radioactive particles. Their tasks include also the comparison of safety precautions between Japanese and German boiling water...more
Long-term Consequences of Radioactive Contamination for Residents near Exclusion Zones
Currently, the workforce at Fukushima is particularly threatened by ionising radiation. Yet they can count on the fact that this contamination remains without serious consequences for their health, if the threshold values of currently 250 millisievert per person really are observed during this time. Likewise, the consequences for residents could...more
Transfer of Ownership of the Tsunami Early Warning System GITEWS to Indonesia
The development of a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean through Helmholtz Centres by order of the German Federal Government was launched immediately after the natural disaster of December 2004. The tsunami's impact caught people in this area completely off guard and claimed altogether around a quarter million lives with over 170,000...more
HZB's "Golden Ratio" Top Story 2010
With 130,000 hits, the HZB press release on the "Golden Ratio in a Quantum World" constituted the absolute top story in EurekAlert!, the American science information service. Together with British colleagues, HZB researchers around Prof. Dr Alan Tennant for the first time discovered hidden symmetry properties in a magnetic crystal...more
Bio Fuels: The Second Generation
Discussion about the new E10 fuel containing up to ten percent ethanol from sugar cane continues to be topical. Whereas car owners fear that E10 may damage the motor, scientists point towards bio fuels from monocultures of sugar cane, wheat or maize as not yet being an optimal solution. Quite the contrary: The cultivation of energy plants in...more
Helmholtz International
On this special page, we report news from the Helmholtz offices in Brussels, Moscow and Beijing several times a year. Specific focus is on cooperation and partnership ventures of the Helmholtz Association in Russia, China and the EU as well as on select international research policy news.more
