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The six reactor systems that GIF selected for further research and development are based on a variety of reactor, energy conversion, and fuel cycle technologies, and range in size from very small to very large. Above is a schematic for the molten-salt reactor, one of the six candidate systems being considered. This kind of reactor uses a mixture of molten salts—salts that become liquid at elevated temperatures—as the primary coolant to remove heat from the reactor's core, where the fuel is processed, and carry it to electrical generators. In June, the DOE awarded Brookhaven Lab funding to lead a new Energy Frontier Research Center, named Molten Salts in Extreme Environments, which will explore the properties and behaviors of these materials. The other five reactors are the gas-cooled fast reactor, lead-cooled fast reactor, sodium-cooled fast reactor, supercritical water-cooled reactor, and very-high-temperature reactor.