HOTLAB: European Hot Laboratories Research Capacities and Needs

With a tradition of four decades, the Working Group on “Hot Laboratories and Remote Handling" is firmly established as the major contact forum for the nuclear R&D facilities at the European scale.

In 2004, the HOTLAB project, a coordination action sponsored by the 6th Euratom Framework Programme, was started to assess the European hot laboratories research capacities and its aptitude for supporting the nuclear industrial and research community both at present and in the future.
The ultimate goal was to preserve an appropriate nuclear research infrastructure in Europe by combining the best available competences at the highest quality.

In 2007, recognizing the increasing number of programs organized on a global basis, it was decided to open the Working Group to non-European countries. Following an agreement with the IAEA, the HOTLAB PIE and transport casks catalogue, were integrated in the IAEA PIE Database. The merged data are kept at the iNFCIS website and are jointly managed by the IAEA and the HOTLAB working group.

Websites

• HOTLAB Working Group website: www.sckcen.be/HOTLAB
• iNFCIS website: www-nfcis.iaea.org

Leenaers Ann , Van den Berghe Sven