A groundbreaking ceremony on 8 June marked the start of construction of a new laboratory building at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JCR) at Karlsruhe in Germany. The new building will replace older ones on the site. JCR said it is renovating and upgrading the infrastructure at the Karlsruhe site "to improve further the safety and security of its installations and ensure that it remains a state-of-the-art facility". The new nuclear laboratory building - known as 'Wing M' - will be "a flexible infrastructure to meet future needs in a cost-effective manner and is indispensable for the JRC to be able to fulfil its obligations in the long term", it said. Once operational, Wing M will host activities currently carried out in other laboratories on the site. These obsolete facilities will then be closed and decommissioned.
The JRC is the European Commission's science and knowledge service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy. It draws on over 50 years of scientific work experience and continually builds its expertise based on its seven scientific institutes, which host specialist laboratories and unique research facilities. They are located in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. JRC's nuclear work - funded by the Euratom Research and Training Programme - has as its objective the pursuit of research, knowledge management and training activities with an emphasis on nuclear safety and security.
