At its annual meeting in December 1999, the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) issued a recommendation to set up an international collaborative project in the field of thermal-hydraulics to implement the recommendation made to this effect by the Senior Group of Experts on Nuclear Safety Research Facilties and Programmes (SESAR/FAP). Based on programmes and time and cost schedules proposed by the various companies operating the test facilities, a proposal for a joint project called SETH (SESAR Thermal-Hydraulics) was elaborated in consultation with the NEA Secretariat and was submitted to the member countries in mid-2000. This proposal was based on exerpiments to be conducted in the PANDA and PKL test facilities.
The SETH project, which started in April 2001, makes a vitally important contribution to safeguarding technical competence within the international research community in the field of thermal-hydraulics.