Generation 4 International Forum. 2007 annual report

This annual report is the first to be issued by GIF (Generation IV International Forum). It summarizes the GIF goals and accomplishments throughout 2007, describes its membership and organization, and provides an overview of its cooperation with other international endeavors for the development of nuclear energy. Future editions will focus on technical progress. Chapter 2 provides an overview on the goals of Generation IV nuclear energy systems and outlines the main characteristics of the six systems selected for joint development by GIF (VHTR - Very High Temperature Reactor; SFR - Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor; SCWR - Super-Critical Water cooled Reactor; GFR - Gas-cooled Fast Reactor; LFR - Lead-cooled Fast Reactor; and MSR - Molten Salt Reactor). Chapter 3 describes the membership and organization of the GIF, the structure of its cooperative research and development (R-D) arrangements, and the status of Member participation in these arrangements. Chapter 4 summarizes the R-D plans and achievements of the Forum until now. It highlights the R-D challenges facing the teams developing Generation IV systems and the major milestones towards the development of these systems. It also describes the progress made regarding the development of methodologies for assessing Generation IV systems with respect to the established goals. Chapter 5 reviews other major international collaborative projects in the field of nuclear energy and explains how the GIF interacts and cooperates with them. Bibliographical references are provided in each chapter in order to facilitate access to public information about the GIF objectives, goals and outcomes