Industry Engagement
GIF is initially a Research and Development (R&D) cooperation plateform driven by members states and their national laboratories. Yet, with Generation IV nuclear technologies maturing, a ever more pressing need to decarbonise energy production and hard to abate energy intensive sectors, and private players having an increasing role in many parts of the world when it comes to future energy systems the GIF is pivoting towards increased industry engagement to establish fruitful cooperation with industry players so they can benefit from the knowledge gathered during more than 20 successful years of international cooperation under the GIF umbrella and that they can also play a role in supporting GIF's vision and efforts to support Generation IV nuclear technologies being mature enough to be economically and sustainably deployed at scale with the highest levels of safety, security and proliferation resistance.
A Senior Industry Adviosry Pannel has also been established to provide the Policy Group with advise from senior industry representatives.
GIF Policy Statement 2022: GIF Engagement with the Nuclear Industry
The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) was launched in 2001 as a multilateral forum focused on the R&D of the next generation of advanced reactor technologies. It seeks to identify, assess and ultimately, contribute to the development of new nuclear energy systems.
Generation IV technologies are now moving towards demonstration and deployment phases – which means that the interaction between the GIF and the industry which will demonstrate and deploy these technologies grows ever more important.
From its inception, the GIF has always had the ability to engage with the Nuclear Industry through its existing arrangements and processes. Although the GIF already engages with the Nuclear Industry, and is a regular host of knowledge sharing meetings on Generation IV technologies, there is a recognition that further action in a more enhanced and structured manner was required to drive the implementation of advanced nuclear technologies that are ready to deploy within the challenging timeframe of the early 2030’s. Recognising that the processes for this engagement are not always clear, in 2022 GIF has agreed a Policy Statement on Engagement with the Nuclear Industry, reemphasising the ability of the Nuclear Industry to engage with and benefit from the work carried out by the GIF.
The Nuclear Industry will ultimately be the conduit through which Generation IV reactors will become a reality, and it is through the Nuclear Industry that GIF can achieve its aim of contributing to the development of new nuclear energy systems.
The new policy statement details the agreed mechanisms and processes to interact with industry and provides the confidence to GIF members that they can and should engage with industry.
As an organisation created through an international treaty, it is important to have rules of engagement so that interactions with industry abide by the treaty, and the policy statement provides these, bringing together in one place the different procedures and processes by which industry can engage with, and benefit from the work of GIF.
GIF Industry Forums
A key initiative by GIF aimed at an increased engagement with the industry are the GIF Industry Forum events. The 2022 edition of the GIF Industry Forum saw 4 days of intensive workshops bringing together the GIF community, the nuclear industry stakeholders focused on deploying advanced reactors, representatives from key international organisations, academia and end users of energy that could be provided by nuclear energy systems.
GIF talks with Industry
In 2024 GIF initiated a series of webinars featuring advanced reactor developers to discuss how they articulate the efforts to move to the stage of deployment for their concept and how the R&D they do internally as well as international R&D efforts such as those supported by GIF supports them in this ambitious journey.
