I-NERI Research Areas

The I-NERI Program sponsors innovative research and development in the following general areas:

• Fuel Cycle Research and Development (FCR&D)
  The mission of FCR&D is to enable the safe, secure, economic, and sustainable expansion of nuclear energy by conducting research, development, and demonstration focused on nuclear fuel recycling and waste management to meet U.S. needs. In this way, nuclear energy can satisfy the growing energy needs of the United States while improving management of waste requiring geologic disposal. These technologies may also be of value to Generation IV.
  
  Research under this initiative focuses on recycling, fuel treatment, and conditioning technologies that have the potential to dramatically reduce the quantity, radiotoxicity, and thermal content of used nuclear fuel materials requiring geological disposal, thus greatly expanding a repository’s effective capacity.

• Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative (GEN IV)
  The purpose of the Generation IV program is to develop next-generation nuclear energy systems that offer advantages in the areas of economics, safety and reliability, and sustainability, and can be commercially deployed by 2030. Using a technology roadmap that was created by member countries in the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), the Generation IV program was assigned six reactor system and fuel cycle concepts that were deemed most promising for achieving the aforementioned advantages.
  
  There are eight technology goals for the Generation IV program:

1. Provide sustainable energy generation that meets clean air objectives and promotes long-term availability of systems and effective fuel utilization for worldwide energy production
2. Minimize and manage nuclear waste, notably reducing the long-term stewardship burden in the future and thereby improving protection for public health and the environment
3. Increase the assurance that systems are a very unattractive and least desirable route for diversion or theft of weapons-usable materials
4. Ensure that systems will excel in safety and reliability
5. Design systems that have a very low likelihood and degree of reactor core damage
6. Create reactor designs that eliminate the need for offsite emergency response
7. Ensure that systems have a clear life-cycle cost advantage over other energy sources
8. Create systems that have a level of financial risk that is comparable to other energy projects.

The six reactor systems selected to meet the Generation IV technology goals are the: Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor, Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor, Molten Salt Reactor, Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor, Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor, and the Very-High Temperature Reactor.