The high temperature gas-cooled reactor

Abstract

Starting from historical developments in the area of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTR or HTGR) this article highlights the most significant recent achievements of this technology internationally and explains its potential value in a modern energy economy beyond pure electricity generation. The HTR is a relatively simple Small Modular Reactor design featuring demonstrated robust passive and inherent safety. It responds to the needs of a very large and growing process heat market in most industrialized countries many of which pursue a stringent policy of reducing fossil fuel burn. The article concludes with an outlook on work towards building demonstration plants, which are required to de-risk private investments and to incentivize deployment. The authors are members of the VHTR System Steering Committee of the Generation IV International Forum. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.