  The electromagnetic calorimeter of PANDA at the FAIR facility will rely on an
operation of lead tungstate (PWO) scintillation crystals at temperatures near
-25 deg.C to provide sufficient resolution for photons in the energy range from
8 GeV down to 10 MeV. Radiation hardness of PWO crystals was studied at the
IHEP (Protvino) irradiation facility in the temperature range from room
temperature down to -25 deg.C. These studies have indicated a significantly
different behaviour in the time evolution of the damaging processes well below
room temperature. Different signal loss levels at the same dose rate, but at
different temperatures were observed. The effect of a deep suppression of the
crystal recovery process at temperatures below
  0 deg.C has been seen.
