Generation IV reactor

The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) - an international organization that coordinates the development of generation IV reactors - specifically selected six reactor technologies as candidates for generation IV reactors.

The designs target improved safety, sustainability, efficiency, and cost. The first commercial Gen IV plants are not expected before 2040–2050, although the World Nuclear Association in 2015 suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030.

No precise definition of a Generation IV reactor exists.

However, the term is intended to refer to nuclear reactor technologies that were under development as of approximately 2000, and whose designs were (at least at that time) believed to represent "the future shape of nuclear energy."

The six designs selected at that time were: the gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR), the lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR), the molten salt reactor (MSR), the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), the supercritical-water-cooled reactor (SCWR) and the very high-temperature reactor (VHTR).