Because of program startup inevitable delays, this first quarterly progress report covers four months, from September to December 1999. Consequently, the subsequent report will cover only two months, January-February 2000 and well set on a regular quarterly basis in March 2000. The major effort was to expand the international basis of the program in line with DOE objective of encouraging international participation to NERI programs and with our belief that development of a new reactor concept must rely on a vast international basis to be successful. We have been able to add major international partners and following is the current list of participating organizations and their lead representative.