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Generation IV reactor

Generation IV (Gen IV) reactors are nuclear reactor design technologies that are envisioned as successors of generation III reactors. 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 World Nuclear Association in 2015 suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030.

No precise definition of a Generation IV reactor exists. The term refers to nuclear reactor technologies under development as of approximately 2000, and whose designs were intended to represent 'the future shape of nuclear energy', at least at that time. The six designs selected 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).

The sodium fast reactor has received the greatest share of funding that supports demonstration facilities. Moir and Teller consider the molten-salt reactor, a less developed technology, as potentially having the greatest inherent safety of the six models. The very-high-temperature reactor designs operate at much higher temperatures than prior generations. This allows for high temperature electrolysis or the sulfur–iodine cycle for the efficient production of hydrogen and the synthesis of carbon-neutral fuels.

The majority of reactors in operation around the world are considered second generation and third generation reactor systems, as the majority of the first generation systems have been retired. China was the first country to operate a demonstration generation-IV reactor, the HTR-PM in Shidaowan, Shandong, which is a pebble-bed type high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. It was connected to the grid in December 2023, making it the world's first Gen IV reactor to enter commercial operation. In 2024, it was reported that China would also build the world’s first thorium molten salt nuclear power station, scheduled to be operational by 2029. Provided by Wikipedia