The future of nuclear power

The third generation of nuclear reactor technology is under construction at Olkiluoto and at Flamanville in France. Many other industrialized countries have developed a new interest in nuclear energy too.

Moreover, the fourth generation of reactors and power plants is already being developed, for instance in the context of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF).

The GIF has studied and developed six advanced reactor or energy conversion systems: the gas-cooled fast reactor, the lead-cooled fast reactor, the molten salt reactor, the sodium-cooled fast reactor, the supercritical water-cooled reactor and the very high-temperature gas reactor. What is typical of all of them is that they can be used to produce not only electricity but also hydrogen, for instance.

The general aims in the design of the fourth-generation reactors are safety, reliability, sustainable energy production, economy and the prevention of nuclear proliferation. These reactors all represent technologies that have been tested on a small scale or in demonstration plants. The most advanced are the sodium-cooled fast reactor and the very high-temperature gas reactor, both of which have been developed on the basis of various-sized test reactors or demonstration plants already built. The new reactor types will be available for commercial use around 2020-2025 at the earliest.