The Generation IV International Forum
Beyond 2030, the prospect for innovative advances through renewed R&D has stimulated worldwide interest in a fourth generation of nuclearenergy systems. Ten countries — Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States — have agreed on a framework for international cooperation in research for a future generation of nuclear energy systems, known as Generation IV [8]. These ten countries have joined together to form the Generation IV International Forum to develop futuregeneration nuclear energy systems that can be licensed, constructed and operated in a manner that will provide competitively priced and reliable energy products while satisfactorily addressing nuclear safety, waste, proliferation and public perception concerns. The objective for Generation IV nuclear energy systems is to have them available for international deployment around the year 2030, when many of the world's currently operating nuclearpower plantswill be at or near the end of their operating licenses.
第4代倡议旨在开发deployment around 2030, new types of nuclear reactors that are simpler, completely free from core meltdown and competitive with the best fossil-fired plants, as well as fuel cycles more resistant to proliferation. Comprehensive assessment studies have already demonstrated that these objectives are achievable. A complete list of the new reactors proposed in the roadmap of the Generation IV International Forum can be found in ref. [8]. The signing of the Generation IV Intergovernmental Framework Agreement in Washington took place on February 28, 2005.
Globally, the processing of spent fuels, the consumption of the plutonium in light water reactors and the transmutation of long-life radiotoxic wastes (minor actinides) in the new generation reactors, could reduce the long-life radiotoxicity of the waste by a factor of 100, leaving a residual radioactivity that would then be comparable to that of the initial natural uranium after several hundred years. The development, in an extended international perspective, of a new generation of nuclear power production system offers attractive opportunities for meeting the challenges for the development of carbon-free sustainable energy sources. The characteristics of this technology are promising (cost, safety, environmental protection) and offer the possibility of implementing several configurations, suited to the economic and technical context in question, thereby enabling a gradual deployment on the international market.
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