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WASHINGTON, D.C -- U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today announced the signing of a formal charter by the United States and governments of leading nuclear nations, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom, establishing the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), as an international collective dedicated to the development by 2030 of the next generation of nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies. The charter provides the framework to plan and conduct international cooperative research on advanced nuclear energy systems that are safe, reliable, economic, and proliferation resistant.

The activities of the GIF support the recommendation in the Bush Administration's National Energy Policy to pursue research that will develop next generation nuclear reactor technologies.

"Nuclear energy technologies are needed to meet today's and tomorrow's energy challenges and help provide a clean and affordable world energy source," said Secretary Abraham. "This agreement is the foundation for the U.S. and our international partners to develop innovative and revolutionary nuclear energy technologies that will be safer, more reliable, more economic, and more proliferation-resistant."

The GIF member countries will work together on Generation IV technologies, sharing resources, expertise, and facilities -- an approach that will lead to efficiencies in designs and avoid duplication of efforts. The objectives of the Forum are to develop concepts for one or more Generation IV nuclear energy systems that can be licensed, constructed and operated in a manner that will provide an economic and reliable supply of energy.

GIF charter members are developing a Generation IV technology roadmap, that when completed in fall 2002, will define the research necessary to develop and deploy the most promising technologies. This technology roadmap will serve as the organizing basis for all of GIF's future research activities. It is anticipated that GIF will collaborate with all elements of the international research community, including industry, academia, government and non-government organizations.

The GIF was initiated in January 2000, when nine countries first met in Washington, D.C., and announced a joint statement of intent to begin investigation of Generation IV nuclear power systems as a long-term option. The second and third meetings of the Forum were held in Seoul, Korea and Paris, France, in August 2000 and March 2001, respectively. The next meeting of GIF will be held in Miami, Fla., in October 2001. Membership in GIF is open to other countries with the approval of the charter members.

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