[en] Multipurpose experimental reactors are now key infrastructures, in complement of prediction capabilities gained thanks to progresses in the modelling, for supporting nuclear energy in terms of safety, ageing management, innovation capacity, economical performances and training. However the European situation in this field is characterized by ageing large infrastructures, which could face to operational issues in the coming years and could jeopardize the knowledge acquisition and the nuclear product qualification. Moreover some specific supplies related to the public demand could be strongly affected (e.g. radiopharmaceutical targets). To avoid a lack in the experimental capacity offer at the European level, the CEA has launched the Jules Horowitz material test reactor (JHR) international program, in the frame of a Consortium gathering EDF (FR), AREVA (FR), the European Commission (EU), SCK.CEN (BE), VTT (FI), CIEMAT (SP), VATTENFALL (SE), UJV (CZ), JAEA (JP) and the DAE (IN). The JHR will be a 100 MW tank pool reactor and will have several experimental locations either inside the reactor core or outside the reactor tank in a reflector constituted by beryllium blocks. Excavation works started mid-2007 on the CEA Cadarache site in the southeast of France. After the construction permit delivery gained in September 2007, building construction began at the beginning of 2009. Reactor start-up is scheduled in 2016. The JHR is designed to offer up-to-date irradiation experimental capabilities for studying nuclear material and fuel behaviour under irradiation in a modern safety frame, mainly due to: 1) High values of fast and thermal neutron fluxes in the core and high thermal neutron flux in the reflector (producing typically twice more material damages per year than available today in European MTRs); 2) A large variety of experimental devices capable to reproduce environment conditions of mainly light water reactors (LWRs) and sodium fast reactors; 3) Several equipment used in support to the irradiation process and to enhance the experiment quality: large hot cells and non destructive examination hot cells, large underwater non destructive examination benches and specific analysis laboratories (fission product laboratory, dosimetry laboratory, chemistry laboratory ect.); 4) The objective i) to test highly instrumented samples under normal conditions and up to limits, ii) to manage degraded fuel samples after soliciting tests (e.g. safety tests), and iii) to perform a large variety of non destructive examinations on samples quickly after their irradiation. After a first part describing the JHR facility, the expected main performances and the building status, this paper will present the current design work carried out i) on the irradiation hosting systems for nuclear materials and nuclear fuels and ii) on the non destructive examination benches. The international collaboration set up around each study will be also underlined, as well as the facility identification within various European road maps and forums; ESFRI, SNE-TP ect.). (authors)