Technology transfer in the Research Centre Karlsruhe

Technology transfer, i.e. cooperation between research and industry in the areas of both new technology and its application, is becoming of increasing importance. In most cases, the partners of the research centres are technology-oriented companies of medium size; the aim of such cooperation is product-oriented development for the company concerned. In their article, Wust and Oberdorfer of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe present, on the example of safety research for light-water reactors, some instances of successful cooperation between research and industry, and of the resultant spin-offs. The overall objective of such safety research in Karlsruhe, which has been going on for more than 25 years, is the protection of population and environment from dangerous emissions of radioactive substances. Within the framework of this research, the research centre has developed technologies which were transposed to industrial use; for example, filter systems, sensor systems, special glazing, microsystems and the incineration of radioactive waste. Thus a Japanese company, for example, developed the original technology of an incineration furnace further, so that today, non-nuclear waste also can be incinerated. On the basis of know-how derived from sensor systems, an intelligent contaminant detection system for pipelines was devised, which was then developed into a leading measurement system for oil and gas pipelines.