[en] In the highly unlikely event of a present PWR pressure vessel (RPV) failure, corium could fall onto the basemat of the reactor and could erode the concrete. For future reactors, it is foreseen to limit the consequences of such an event by catching and cooling the corium in a specific device named core-catcher. In particular, the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) is considering a core-catcher concept which is based on mixing the corium with a special concrete, spreading the molten mixture on a large surface and subsequently cooling by flooding with water. Therefore, sufficient melt spreading is one of the key phenomena to achieve ex-vessel melt coolability and deserves intensive investigation. The French research programme on spreading, conducted by the CEA and its partners: EDF and FRAMATOME, is composed of three main complementary tasks: the THEMA computer code, the CORINE analytical experiments performed with low temperature simulant materials and the VULCANO global experiments carried out with 'prototypic' materials. This programme, resulting from a thorough study of possible scenarios and involved phenomena, is presented here with the latest results obtained

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