The Actinide User Laboratory at ITU-Karlsruhe

The interest in actinide materials arises mainly from their fundamental physics and chemistry and the complexity of their behaviour as illustrated through numerous papers of this conference. Such research also impacts on nuclear fuel technology and the problem of nuclear waste and long-term storage. Despite the great interest in the actinides the number of Laboratories equipped to handle these materials is steadily decreasing due to heavy and costly security requirements. The Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) is a Laboratory of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission which addresses a large number of questions related to actinides, both basic and applied, and is the only non-classified Laboratory in Europe where research on appreciable quantities of transuranium materials is conducted across a wide range of chemistry and physics. In order to keep alive an essential and exciting field of research in physic and chemistry, we have decided to offer access to our facilities to external users through an Actinide User Laboratory. Materials preparation facilities and a suite of instruments, together with expert technical assistance, are available for conducting basic or applied research studies. The Actinide User Laboratory is selected as a user facility to participate in the European Community - Access to Research Infrastructures action of the Improving Human Potential Programme (IHP) which supports access to our actinide facility for the selected users teams, travel and subsistence fees of visiting scientists. The programme is open to EC users and to scientists of the associated states. (author)