Ten years ago, a range of countries joined their efforts to develop innovative nuclear reactors under the auspices of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). Along with Russia, the parties to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) project are Canada, China, South Korea, the USA, France, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan and EURATOM. Having expired last February, the agreement was renewed as early as late June for ten other years despite political tensions between Russia and the West.
GIF member countries work on the development of the six most promising concepts of nuclear energy systems offering economic, safety and nuclear waste management advantages, and establishment of criteria and requirements for Gen IV nuclear reactors. As of today, the six concepts include three fast reactors (gas-cooled, lead-cooled and sodium-cooled reactors), a molten salt reactor, a supercritical water-cooled reactor and a high-temperature gas reactor.
“We place much emphasis on the GIF initiatives,” Rosatom CEO Sergei Kirienko said after the signing ceremony. “We are absolutely sure that these projects are the future of both nuclear power and the global energy industry. The initiatives facilitate development of new technology, which will be safe, efficient and widely accepted by the public.”
According to Rosatom, the framework agreement extension is in line with Russia’s technological and commercial ambitions as it will spur the development of the national nuclear power industry and strengthen Russia’s economic leverage on the global market of nuclear innovations.
“It is a great event for me because I was the first GIF chairman,” Mr. Magwood said. “Russian experts are a pleasure to work with as they make a sizable contribution to the CIF efforts. I hope our cooperation will continue.”
After the agreement was signed, our reporter talked with the OECD NEA Director General. William Magwood came into office in September 2014, having a strong track record of working for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy. As mentioned above, he was at the origins of the Generation IV International Forum. “When the Forum came into being, ambitious plans were on our agenda,” he said. “Our goal was to bring nations together in an attempt to develop innovative technologies contributing to nuclear safety, efficiency and non-proliferation. All these tasks lie at GIF’s foundation.” According to Magwood, activity has recently faded away in some areas of research despite substantial progress in other projects. “It is important for the research effort to gather its original pace. We have advanced greatly in the development of sodium-cooled fast reactors. I hope that Russia’s participation in the initiative will encourage other countries,” stressed Mr. Magwood.
He does not think that some projects are more important than the others, “Some technologies make faster progress but all of them have great potential.” Last year, the OECD NEA Director General once said that Russia and France were in the forefront of advanced nuclear research. He has not changed his opinion since then, “Russia and France are the only countries today to continue the development of new reactor technologies. Other countries should follow them for the whole world to win.”
