HTR2006 was the third in a series of bi-annual topical meetings on High Temperature Reactor technology. The first meeting was held in 2002 in Petten in the Netherlands and the second in Beijing in 2004. Both these meetings were a huge success, which is evident from the growing interest in High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors worldwide. The HTGR is one of the most promising reactor concepts of the Nuclear Renaissance, offering advantages such as improved safety and economics, shorter construction times, distributed generation and high temperature availability for process heat applications such as hydrogen production.

Current research and development projects are progressing in countries such as Japan, China, South Africa, France, USA, South Korea and the Russian Federation. Many other countries are participating in HTR research through the High Temperature Reactor Technology Network (HTR-TN), a network of 21 partner organizations of the European Union, and the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), which include 10 member countries as well as the INPRO project of the IAEA. Two of these countries, South Africa and China, have recently announced plans to build full scale HTGR demonstration plants within the next few years.