INPRO | SMRS & ADVANCED REACTORS 25 years of INPRO The International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel
Cycles (INPRO) was created to address the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy. Experts tell NEi about its 25-year journey.
By Judith Perera
IN 2025, THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) celebrated its 25th anniversary. Mikhail Chudakov, Deputy Director General and Head of
the Department of Nuclear Energy, praised INPRO’s crucial contribution: “You don’t need me to tell you that the world needs more nuclear power,” he told NEi. But, he added: “Long-term sustainability requires diligent planning. It demands a holistic approach. And since its establishment in 2000, INPRO has played a pivotal role in driving progress by focusing on four primary tasks: global scenarios, technological and institutional innovations, sustainability assessments and strategies.” He pointed to the 24 INPRO Dialogue Forums “that bring
together participants from across the world to discuss a wide range of topical issues, from how to leverage international partnerships to accelerating the rollout of new reactor technologies such as SMRs”. He noted that INPRO also “plays a vital role in education and training”, conducting regional INPRO Schools around the world, adding that 350 people from more than 50 IAEA member states had been trained in these schools between 2021 and 2025. INPRO was founded in 2000 based on two IAEA
General Conference resolutions to address the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy. The first invited “all interested member states to combine their efforts under the aegis of the Agency in considering the issues of the nuclear fuel cycle, in particular by examining innovative and proliferation-resistant nuclear technology”. The second sought to establish “a task force on innovative nuclear reactors and fuel cycles” and invited member states to “consider contributing to its activities”. INPRO was officially launched in May 2001 as a membership-
based project rather than a core IAEA programme. INPRO member states provided direct extra-budgetary funds to support the project’s operations.
The INPRO methodology The first 10 countries to join INPRO were Argentina, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Spain and Turkey. The European Commission (EC) joined as an additional founding institutional member and by early 2002, the membership had already expanded to include Brazil, south Korea and Switzerland. These founding members were responsible for nominating the first 14 cost-free experts who developed the initial sustainability methodology. The INPRO methodology is a holistic, technically sound
assessment framework used to evaluate the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy systems (NES). It provides a standardised metric to determine if a nuclear system, including reactors and fuel cycles, meets the requirements
for sustainable development throughout its entire lifecycle. The methodology uses a top-down hierarchical structure to make “sustainability” measurable. This methodology includes:
● Basic Principles: Broad goals defining what a sustainable system should achieve in a specific area;
● User Requirements: Specific actions that designers, operators, or states must take to meet those principles; and
● Criteria: Detailed assessment tools consisting of Indicators (measurable values or conditions) and Acceptance Limits (the threshold for success).
A Nuclear Energy System Assessment (NESA) using the
INPRO methodology covers six areas: ● Economics - nuclear energy must be available,
affordable, and economically competitive with alternative energy sources;
● Safety- systems must be safer than existing designs, incorporating “safety-by-design” to prevent severe accidents
● Waste Management - waste must be managed to protect human health and avoid passing undue burdens to future generations.
● Proliferation Resistance- systems must remain unattractive sources for the diversion of nuclear material into weapons programmes;
● Environment – it must minimise environmental “stressors” and ensure efficient use of non-renewable resources like uranium; and
● Infrastructure – states should be able to adopt or expand nuclear power without excessive investment in national infrastructure (legal, social, and human resources).
www.neimagazine.com | May 2026 | 41
The INPRO
methodology is a holistic, technically sound assessment framework used to evaluate the long- term sustainability of nuclear energy systems. Source: IAEA
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