Project Notes

06.07.2022 — Press release
DSEE fördert Folgeprojekt —
   Vor sechs Jahren hat die FIfF-Regionalgruppe Aachen
das Projekt Tihange-Doel Radiation Monitoring TDRM.eu gestartet. In der Grenzregion B-F-NL-D wurde ein Netz aus mittlerweile 36 Sensorstationen aufgebaut, das auffällige Entwicklungen der atmosphärischen Radioaktivität im Umkreis der problematischen belgischen AKWs Tihange und Doel frühzeitig melden würde. Das Projektteam hat die Sensorstationen entwickelt und gefertigt sowie die zentrale Datenerfassung und die Website realisiert.
   Für ein Folgeprojekt konnte nun erfolgreich eine Förderung durch die Deutsche Stiftung für Engagement und Ehrenamt DSEE eingeworben werden. Unser Ziel: Aufbauend auf den bisherigen Erfahrungen wird der Prototyp einer neuen Sensorstation mit verbesserten Eigenschaften entwickelt: robuster im Betrieb, unkomplizierter in der Installation, universeller in der Anwendung, auch im Außenbereich, preiswert in der Herstellung und für den Selbstbau geeignet. Ein wesentliches Merkmal ist die Anwendung der für das 'Internet der Dinge' entwickelte LoraWAN-Technologie.
   Wir möchten mit diesem Vorhaben nicht nur unsere bisherige erfolgreiche Arbeit fortsetzen und ausweiten, sondern insbesondere zur Förderung von Citizens-Sensing-Initiativen beitragen. Denn eine Beteiligung von Bürger:innen an der Beobachtung und Erfassung der Parameter unserer Lebens­welt stärkt Umwelt­bewusstsein und -verantwortung, vermittelt Wissen über Umwelt und Technik und ebnet den Weg zu einem informierten politischen Engagement. Vielfach sind solche Initiativen schon behördlichen Maßnahmen zuvor gekommen und haben politisches Handeln beschleunigt oder sogar erst veranlasst.
   Verantwortlich für das Projekt ist Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser..

Feb 20, 2022   ..........................................  
tdrm21 installed in Lille (F)                
A first TDRM station has been installed in France about midway between NPP Gravelins and NPP Chooz. Its location is Lambersart, a suburb of Lille.                 

Feb 9, 2022: ---  
tdrm3 at Havelange installed              
New station at Havelange, about 15km south of Tihange, has been moved to its final outdoor location.       

Jan 1st, 2022: ---                               
Guest stations around MPP Cattenom
 
Since the beginning of this year Trier-based MAUS e.V. kindly provides the TDRM project with data of their precision sensor stations located around French NPP Cattenom and in the vincinity of Trier. Current radiation levels are updated at the full hour. History is shown by means of 60min, 24hours, 7days and 30days time curves.

Dec 13, 2021:
TDRM celebrates its 5th anniversary  
December 13 is an exceptional date for our project. Exactly five years ago the TDRM team held a first press conference in Aachen during which the TDRM network was launched by means of a symbolic push on the start button. After scarcely more than six months spent for the manufacturing of sensor stations and for the development of the software a network of a first four installations in the Tihange/Liège area plus two Aachen-based stations was led over into regular operation, and from now on visualizations of the stations' measurement data could be publicly viewed on our first website.
Till then the network has been continuously extended and improved. Even in 2021 we were lucky to add two new locations, one in Antwerp City and another one at Gemmenich (Plombière). Currently 32 station are in regular operation. One station located at Amay until mid of the year is due to be installed at its new location at Saint Georges. Another station is being parked in Antwerp waiting for a new host.
In addition to external radiation data imported from the Dutch GammaSense network we expect to get the permission to import radiation data from a precision radiation sensor station located at Trier and operated by MAUS e.V of Trier. The location is relevant with respect to NPPs at Chooz and Cattenom.
These days we can proudly announce that the TDRM network provides the public with local radiation data 7/24 at a 90...95% availability of its present 32 stations. Not least, this is owed to the continuous support of all of those fellows who are hosting one of our sensor stations! Thank to you for always looking after your station immediately, give it a fresh start, or even replace the memory chip when, at odd times, its offline state would persist!
At our home base an expert team stays ready to give, if needed, remote advice to station hosts and to troubleshoot in the short run, if any problem occurs with our server or our website set-up in order to maintain a 7/24 availability of up-tp-date radiation levels.

Oct 29, 2021: Server frontend replaced  
A new server frontend based on PHP has been developed from scratch to replace the previous ReST-API based on NodeJS Express. The new API improves the efficiency and facilitates easier maintenance. The lever has successfully been thrown on 29 Oct :)
.......................................................................................................................................................................................                                     

Jan 29, 2021: Server up :) -- 

Jan 28, 2021: Server down due to maintenance problems --  
We are working hard ...

Dec 31, 2020: Letter to the hosts and operators of TDRM sensor stations at the turn of the year -- 
Dear friends:
2020 was an exceptionally hard year, burdening with unprecedented threats and restrictions. Hardly surprising, the risks of continued operation of outdated nuclear reactors got much less attention than deserved in media coverage and public awareness. Nevertheless, the risks of fatal nuclear accidents will increase with every additional year of operation.
Boldfaced the pro-nuclear lobby abuses the situation to pursue their interests. The discussion of plans for interim nuclear waste storage facilities and about potential locations for permanent storage sites slipped public awareness. The delivery of fuel elements for Doel-2 by ANF Lingen was at first stopped by a restraining order of the Aachen Administrative Court. Shortly thereafter, however, the Hessen District Administration Court reversed the order on appeal of the manufacturer -- again with little or no public attention. Meanwhile Dutch Government considers to operate NPP Borssele until 2053. Its total run time would then amount to 80 years! ...
It would seem that we have to go on with our fight for a soon shut-down of nuclear reactors about us, and now even in the Netherlands. Hence we will still need the TDRM network for a while -- for citizens' information about present radioactivity levels, for reminding everybody of the ongoing threat, for gaining time in cases of emergency.
Proudly we can report, that up to now the network has been extended towards 32 sensor stations, and it operates pretty stable providing an availability of an estimated 90...95%. Recently three stations have been added which had been assembled by their hosts on their own initiative. Early this year we agreed on a mutual exploitation of measurement data by the Dutch project GammaSense which operates a radiation sensor network of about 30 stations, mostly on Dutch grounds. Since May we include into the TDRM survey nine GammSense stations located in areas-at-risk.
We did not yet give up plans for a redesign of the TDRM sensor station with extended measuring options (e.g. Beta in addition to Gamma radiation), independence of power supply and other features. It keeps to be a dream as long as we are too short of human resources -- however, who never had a dream ...
The members of the TDRM project team cordially thank all of you who are supporting the TDRM project by running and maintaining one of our sensor stations in the field, some of you already for more than four years -- and those who kept the project alive by their generous donations!
We wish you a peaceful and recreative season, and for the New Year, above all, health and confidence,
Daniel Brückner, Peter Kämmerling, Gerd Krenzer, Heiko Mahnke, Mike Rabald und Dietrich Meyer-Ebrecht

August 08, 2020: Heatproblems  --  
Due to excessive ambient temperatures severals of our sensor station from under a temporal outage of the measuring signal. We are working on a solution.

May 11, 2020: TDRM shares GammaSense data -- 
A WISE/WAAG initiative recently launched a new network for the monitoring of radioactive radiation. Sensor stations are predominantly located in the Netherlands, see https://gammasense.org/map. Rather than overlapping the networks of GammaSense and TDRM favourably complement each other. So it suggested itself to combine our strengths by mutually sharing our data.A first step has been accomplished by importing sensor data of a handful of GammaSense stations. In a first approach we selected GammaSense stations at locations most relevant for TDRM's mission. The pop-ups of GammaSense stations (green icons) provide links to their operators' website, to detail maps of the station's surroundings, and to time charts.

--- Past matters ---

March 19, 2020: Failure of the representation of the current radiation values on the table of measurements. We are working on the problem.
Meanwhile, current values ae still provided as time series accessible by links underlying the numeric values in the column "Average" of the table of measurements.
See also tdrm.fiff.de/userdata/etc/list/ for an alternative survey of current measurements and trends!

August 15, 2019: Newly hatched swallow chicks on top of TDRM_35 :) ---

August 14, 2019: TDRM_35 (Comblain au Pont) has to stay offline until a pair of swallows' brood has become fully-fleged. The box must not be opened to change a failed part since the birds built their nest on top of the box -- how lovely ;) ---

swallow

July 25, 2019: Excessive ambient temperature causes temporary break-down of several sensor stations or, in some cases, wrong measuring results :( ---

April 15, 2019: Greenpeace Greencast 217, podcast interview "TDRM", recorded on March 29, 2019 at 7pm in Berlin (approx. 25min, in German) ---

April 9, 2019: Simulation experiments, please ignore temporarily excessive measuring values of stations SIM_1 to _3, cluster 'Simulation'! ---

March 27, 2019: TDRM website skin and functionality thoroughly reworked, responsive design facilitates convenient use on smart phones. ---

Jan 01, 2019: Spenden jetzt mit Paypal-Spendenbutton ganz schnell und unkompliziert! ---

Sept 18, 2018: Third sensor station in the Netherlands goes online in Bergen op Zoom. ---

Sept 17, 2018: Negotiations with the office for disaster control (Abteilung für Katastrophenschutz der Städteregion Aachen) are continued on procedures how to deal with automatic alerts generated by the TDRM service in cases of evolving radiation levels  ---

Aug 10, 2018: Our new website has been launched!  
Please report problems, errors, or shortcomings to Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.!  
Any comments or suggestions for improvements are welcome. 
The old website can still be accessed via alt.tdrm.eu. ---