A global technology standards and certification group has launched a consortium to collaborate on finding advanced nuclear energy solutions to serve industrial customers.

According to The Open Group, whose more than 900 members include Shell, Aramaco, Fujitsu, Intel, and IBM, the Industrial Advanced Nuclear Consortium (IANC) will help encourage competition, lower costs, decrease regulatory risks, and reduce schedule uncertainties around nuclear energy by uniting industrial users and suppliers around open standards and business guidelines.

The Open Group said the IANC will deliver open standard frameworks and business guidelines for nuclear deployment for industry. The benefit to industrial end-users will be “diversification of their energy sources with reliable, safe, and carbon-free heat and power”.

“There is an urgent need to better leverage nuclear energy to address the application of heat and power solutions,” said Steve Nunn, president and chief executive officer of The Open Group.