9.1 Generation IV

The nuclear designs under consideration for construction in the UK and elsewhere in the next two decades are, at bottom, very similar to those developed in the early days of the industry. This is not surprising: with a history of around 50 years and reactors that can last for 40 or 50 years, the industry has barely had time for its reactor designs to evolve very far. Some would argue that the nuclear industry settled too quickly on its favoured designs and that other options may still offer better efficiency and safety performance. One argument says that the years of experience and technology development built up, for example, in operating a large number of PWRs have counterbalanced the potential of other designs.

One person who argued that this decision was made too early was Klaus Stadie, previously the deputy director of safety and regulation at the OECD s Nuclear Energy Agency. Writing in 1996 on the 40th anniversary of the start up of the first nuclear power reactor, he pointed out that initially eight reactor designs had been selected for construction and operation under the US Atomic Energy Commission s Power Reactor Demonstrator Programme. This was not a systematic review but if the programme had been carried through as planned over a period of 15 20 years, it would have provided reactor designers with sufficient insights to choose the one or two most attractive concepts for large power reactors .

After more than 50 years, several of the early reactor concepts...