HOTLAB 2017; 54th Annual Meeting on Hot Laboratories and Remote Handling

Minato, Kazuo 

HOTLAB 2017 was held by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in cooperation with the Atomic Energy Society of Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency. This series of meetings has been held every year since 1963 to make information exchange and cooperation on post-irradiation examination and remote handling technologies and safe operation of hot laboratories. 155 engineers and researchers from 21 countries (107 from abroad) participated in the meeting. 51 oral presentations and 29 poster presentations were made. During the meeting a lively discussion was made between engineers being involved in installation of new technology and apparatus in hot cells and researchers aiming at using new ones. There was a great expectation in the construction of a new hot laboratory for analyses of the fuel debris of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The necessity for facilities and apparatus for sophisticated analyses and measurements on small irradiated samples was emphasized.