President Eisenhower, in his December 1953 "Atoms for Peace" speech, called for greater international cooperation in the development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. In October 1957 the United Nations created the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy worldwide and prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The official source of direction from Congress to the Department of Energy (DOE) with respect to nuclear energy R&D policy can be found in

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... the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT). The EPACT was enacted in October 1992 and implemented and built upon strategies put forth by the Bush Administration in its National Energy Strategy (NES) published in February 1991. The NES clearly states that nuclear energy will continue to be important as a key component of a flexible, secure energy mix for the country. It predicted an increase in nuclear energy generation in the U.S. of 10% by 2010 if the measures it recommended are fully implemented. The NES describes four nuclear energy goals and approaches to achieve those goals: Goal Approach Maintain exacting safety and design standards Accelerate introduction of advanced design nuclear power plants Reduce economic risk Accelerate introduction of standard power plant designs Reduce regulatory risk Reform the NRC licensing process Establish an effective high-level nuclear waste program Site and license a permanent waste repository and a monitored retrievable storage facility EPACT Title XXI, Energy and Environment, Subtitle C, Advanced Nuclear Reactor, Section 2121, requires DOE to carry out civilian nuclear programs in a way that will lead toward commercial availability of advanced nuclear reactor technologies. The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology's (NE) advanced reactor development projects underway at the time EPACT became law included the high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), the advanced liquid metal reactor (ALMR), the actinide burn technology evaluation (Integral Fast Reactor), and the advanced light water reactor (ALWR). Section 2124 of EPACT directed DOE to complete R&D on HTGR and ALMR designs to support selection of one or both designs for prototype construction by September 30, 1998. Congress canceled the ALMR and IFR projects in FY1995 and the HTGR in FY1996. EPACT Section 2121 directed DOE to further timely availability of advanced nuclear reactor technologies, including technologies that use standardized