By monitoring the air and prescipitation, we can also detect minor increases in radioactivity in the environment and report them immediately to the responsible federal ministry. If conspicuous measured values occur, these are exchanged within the European and international framework via the EU and the IAEA and the population is informed. In addition, the radioactivity laboratories worldwide are also in direct contact with each other and exchange information.

More details on environmental and food monitoring in Austria from 2017 to 2019, as well as 2020, can be found in our joint report with the Ministries of Climate Protection and Health. You can find the report at the bottom of this page under Downloads.

Harmful substances such as heavy metals and radioactive substances can accumulate in wood ashes, and the amount can vary greatly. For radioactive substances, the accumulation is highest in wood pellet ash. For this reason, among others, wood pellet ash should not be used for fertilizing the garden.

Wood is a relatively quickly renewable resource and is considered an environmentally friendly,_CO2-neutralfuel. The combustion process produces only ash as a waste product. For the respective wood fuel (wood pellets, wood chips, logs and wood briquettes), there are specially designed combustion systems that are optimally adapted to the product used.

Heating with wood pellets is subsidized by the federal government, the states and the municipalities. In recent years, more and more households are heating with pellet boilers. Nationwide, there are more pellet boilers than other biomass boilers . In Austria, only by-products of the sawmill industry and no bark are used for pellet production. During heating, the organic component of the wood is burned, while the mineral, non-combustible component remains as ash. Plant ashes from biomass furnaces can be valuable secondary raw materials. Their possible use on agricultural and forestry land is described in more detail in the "Guideline for the proper use of plant ashes". You can find this at the end of this page under Downloads.

Due to the Chernobyl reactor accident (1986), among other things, radioactive cesium and strontium were distributed over several European countries, including Austria. These radioactive substances are absorbed by vegetation. Due to their half-life of about 30 years, radioactive caesium and strontium can still be detected in plants (e.g. trees) and wild animals in the affected areas. If wood from these regions is used for heating, radioactive cesium and strontium may accumulate in the ashes.

The radioactivity in the wood itself is harmless from a radiation protection point of view and therefore poses no health risk to the population. However, the accumulation of radioactive substances in the wood ashes produced varies greatly and can be relevant from a radiation protection point of view.

Nevertheless, from our point of view, it is not recommended to scatter the wood pellet ashes in the garden or even on a vegetable patch. This is because the ashes contain not only radioactive substances but also non-combustible and potentially harmful minerals, salts, heavy metals and organic pollutants.

The disposal of ashes in private households is regulated differently in each federal state and often also in each municipality. In most of Austria, it is mandatory to dispose of the cooled ash in the residual waste.

Detailed technical information on the project can be found in the final report, which can be downloaded under Downloads.