Fiscal year (FY) 2011 marks the ten-year anniversary of the founding of the International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative, or I-NERI. Designed to foster international partnerships that address key issues affecting the future global use of nuclear energy, I-NERI is perhaps even more relevant today than at its establishment. In the face of increasing energy demands coupled with clean energy imperatives, we must clear the hurdles to expanding the role of nuclear power in our energy portfolio. And in an increasingly global society, the importance of international cooperation in these efforts has escalated.
For ten years, I-NERI has been a vehicle for establishing bilateral agreements with our partners in the global nuclear community. These agreements have resulted in collaborative research and development that investigates next-generation nuclear systems and fuel cycles, helping to determine tomorrow’s solutions to today’s challenges. For ten years, I-NERI has upheld U.S. visibility in the worldwide nuclear community and served as a foundation for mutual cooperation not only in technical advancement but also in enhanced safety and security.
This year we celebrate dual milestones with not only ten successful years but also a grand total of 100 I-NERI collaborative research projects initiated through the program—as well as six new projects that were recently authorized. This annual report provides abstracts of these new projects and findings of projects ongoing or completed in FY 2011. I look forward to another productive decade as U.S. researchers, arm in arm with their international partners, bring nuclear power into the next generation.
