On October 14-18, 2019, the 48th Policy Group (PG) Meeting and the 42nd Expert Group (EG) Meeting of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) were held in Weihai, Shandong Province. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) is a co-operative international endeavour which was set up to carry out the research and development in the six most promising next-generation nuclear energy systems, namely sodium cooled fast reactor, lead cooled fast reactor (LFR), gas cooled fast reactor, supercritical water cooled reactor, very high temperature gas cooled reactor and molten salt reactor. Its members include Canada, China, France, Japan, ROK, Switzerland, the United States, Russia, and the European Atomic Energy Community.
The meetings of the GIF PG and EG are held twice a year alternately by member countries of the GIF and OECD-NEA. This is the third time the meetings are hosted by China. A GIF seminar was also held on the sidelines of the meetings.
Deputy Director-General Chen Linhao of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Deputy Director-General Gao Hongbin of the System Engineering Department of the China Atomic Energy Authority attended the PG meeting as Chinese representatives. The meetings reviewed research progress of the nuclear systems and methodology groups, the delivery of the action plan of the 47th policy group meeting, latest progress in supercritical water-cooled reactors and lead-cooled fast reactors of Generation IV systems. The meeting also reported the review of Turkey for its joining GIF, as well as the cooperation between IAEA and GIF, and deliberated on how private companies (including small reactor R&D enterprises) could better participate in GIF activities.
During the meetings, the Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the leading Chinese organization participating in GIF’s lead-cooled fast reactor activities, formally signed the document on China‘s joining the GIF LFR Provisional System Steering Committee (PSSC).
The 60 plus representatives from GIF countries also visited the Huaneng Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong Province and inspected the project site. Chief Engineer Gong Bing of the Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant detailed on the latest development of engineering construction, installation and commissioning at the plant.