The Baikal Neutrino experiment: NT200+ and beyond

Abstract The 10 Mton scale Neutrino telescope NT 200 + is operating in Lake Baikal since April, 2005. It's main physics goal is the detection of high energy neutrino cascades in the 10 2 – 10 5 TeV energy range. The NT 200 + sensitivity to astrophysical diffuse neutrinos is four times that of it's predecessor NT200 the telescope that has been operating since 1998, yielding a variety of physics results. A km-scale (Gigaton Volume) Neutrino telescope in Lake Baikal is planned, the R&D phase has started in 2006. We give the basic layout of this Baikal km3-detector, which will be made of building blocks similar to NT 200 + .