Important changes are taking place in nuclear technology to respond to new challenges on climate change, new markets, new applications, advanced fuel cycles, among others. In response to them, new initiatives and advanced designs have emerged that we propose to present in this session.

Some are an evolution of previous light water designs, such as the new PWR and BWR designs, while others involve the introduction of new technologies, such as fast reactors, molten salt reactors, or high temperature reactors.

In both working models, great design effort is necessary and for the most part, it is necessary to proceed to build and test a prototype in order to obtain its approval from regulatory bodies. Hence the interest in bringing a group of experts in various designs to explain the status of their projects in detail and the expectations of reaching new reactors in operation in the medium term to this session of the SNE. We must not forget the great investment of effort that these new designs imply, and which has led many governments to cooperate in their financing.