1985 ...

After graduation, I started working at the TU Munich, Institute of Radiochemistry, Garching (RCM). Main focus: - Migration of neptunium (Np-237) in salt domes - actinide chemistry, handling of open radioactivity - open α-β-γ-emitters, spectroscopy; this were my everyday tools. Background of all work was to answer the repository question, even for highly radioactive heat-generating wastes from reprocessing (WAK), too.

In Mol/Belgium, PAMELA was commissioned, it was a pilot facility for vitrification of highly radioactive waste (HAW) from the plutonium and uranium recycling, so called PUREX process. Corresponding aerosol samples were investigated from me by scanning electron  microscopy. In the analytical SEM-EDX discipline I became a specialist and - a little bit later - head of surface analysis: high level radioactive substances (up to Curie-scales) and in few-µm-ranges were described chemically and structurally (e.g. epsilon phases, CRUD, vitrification residues, pure isotopic fission nuclides).

• 1991 - 1994

After six years of radioactive work, Philips Kommunikations-Industrie AG (PKI) offered me the position of the laboratory manager in the quality assurance department. My responsibilities at PKI included monitoring the manufacturing process. The field of environmental protection tasks belonged to my responsibility field, too. In manufacturing, the electroplating was monitored and controlled; it was important for printed circuit board production, and external suppliers were audited by me — this was the firs half of my business period, in Nuremberg.

During the second half, I worked at LinoNorm in Nuremberg. I moved to LinoNorm because the company wanted to gain a foothold in the field of exploration and remediation of contaminated sites. Previously, LinoNorm had been active in the asbestos sector, an I had deep experience in electron microscopy . In the two years I was with LinoNorm, besides the microscopy, I set up the analysis laboratory for contaminated sites and buildings. Furthermore I took on the task and responsibility of radiation protection officer for LinoNorm GmbH. The founded chemical analysis laboratory was successfully put into operation.

• 1994 - 2010

Conventional analytics was very interesting - but nevertheless, I was drawn back to radiochemistry and to Garching; the nuclear technology was more exciting and challenging. In addition, my gained industrial experience was very valuable for the TU Munich, Garching, at that time: the services of the radiochemistry laboratory were to be offered to industry. During this time, new and highly sensitive analytical methods were developed for radionuclides that could not be detected by gamma spectrometry. The methods became part of the laboratory routine. They were applied in cooperation with TÜV SUED and NAGRA, Switzerland..

In 2003, a research and development project on fuel conditioning of the in Germany installed SUR-100 training reactors started, dealing with the disposal of 20 % enriched nuclear fuel. The process I developed was successfully applied, including conditioning of AKR training reactor fuel (TU Dresden); see publication in atw 04-2009. In 2010, the work concluded with the conditioning of the AGN-201-P training reactor core of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, Switzerland. For more information see the final report from BMBF project.

Furthermore, CRUD deposits on BWR fuel rods were investigated from 2008 to 2010. Aim of the investigations was the Improvement of the radiological situation during power plant operation and the maintenance shutdowns.