systems. In the 1960s, AVCO Everett Aeronautical Research began a series of experiments, ending with the Mk. V generator of 1965. This generated 35MW, but used about 8 MW to drive its magnet. In 1966, the ILG-MHD had its first formal meeting in Paris, France. It began issuing a periodic status report in 1967. This pattern persisted, in this institutional form, up until 1976. Toward the end of the 1960s, interest in MHD declined because nuclear power was becoming more widely available. In the late 1970s, as interest in nuclear power declined, interest in MHD increased. In 1975, UNESCO became persuaded the MHD might be the most efficient way to utilise world coal reserves, and in 1976, sponsored the ILG-MHD. In 1976, it became clear that no nuclear reactor in the next 25 years would use MHD, so the International Atomic Energy Agency and ENEA (both nuclear agencies) withdrew support from the ILG-MHD, leaving UNESCO as the primary sponsor of the ILG-MHD. Former Yugoslavia development Over more than a ten-year span, engineers in former Yugoslavian Institute of Thermal and Nuclear Technology (ITEN), Energoinvest Co., Sarajevo, had built the first experimental Magneto-Hydrodynamic facility power generator in 1989. It was here it was first patented. U.S. development In the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy began a vigorous multiyear program, culminating in a 1992 50 MW demonstration coal combustor at the Component Development and Integration Facility (CDIF) in Butte, Montana. This program also had significant work at the Coal-Fired-In-Flow-Facility (CFIFF) at University of Tennessee Space Institute. This program combined four parts: An integrated MHD topping cycle, with channel, electrodes and current control units developed by AVCO, later known as Textron Defence of Boston. This system was a Hall effect duct generator heated by pulverized coal, with a potassium ionisation seed. AVCO had developed the famous Mk. V generator, and had significant experience. An integrated bottoming cycle, developed at the CDIF. A facility to regenerate the ionization seed was developed by TRW. Potassium carbonate is separated from the sulphate in the fly ash from the scrubbers. The carbonate is removed, to regain the potassium. A method to integrate MHD into preexisting coal plants. The Department of Energy commissioned two studies. Westinghouse Electric performed a study based on the Scholtz Plant of Gulf Power in Sneads, Florida. The MHD Development Corporation also produced a study based on the J.E. Corrette Plant of the Montana