The United States, France, Great Britain, Japan and Canada signed the agreement, which aims to coordinate the development of new nuclear technologies that will be used in power generation decades from now.

The research will help address the rising global demand for energy and the need to diversify energy sources, said US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman.

The eleven-member Generation IV International Forum has identified six of the most promising technologies for research and development: gas-cooled fast reactor systems, lead-cooled fast reactor systems, molten salt reactors, super-critical-water-cooled reactors and very high tempreature reactors.

"It will take probably 30 years before the first reactor is built" with Generation IV technology, said French ambassador David Levitte at the signing.

The other six members of the forum, expected to sign the agreement in the coming months, are Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, and Euratom, the European atomic energy agency.

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