Development of the Westinghouse lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) has continued; focused on quantifying drivers of cost and using that information to select new, innovative design characteristics to optimize economics while maintaining and harnessing the LFR’s promise of exceptional safety performance. An intelligent method of concept selection has been employed across a wide variety of systems and components to deliver the lowest total cost to operators. Multiple core designs and fuel management schemes are considered possible within the design, including very high burnup fuel to reduce fuel cycle cost and enhance proliferation resistance. Notably, Westinghouse is considering supercritical CO2 as advanced balance of plant technology, driving both economics and efficiency. When coupled to an innovative thermal energy storage system, the LFR will be capable of supporting the adoption of non-dispatchable grid resources by providing economical and scalable energy storage. By utilizing lead to achieve a plant economic objective, rather than a predetermined fuel mission, Westinghouse believes they can effectively deliver the promise of Generation IV nuclear technologies; low-cost, intrinsically safe, sustainable, and proliferation resistant, by combining the benefits of LFR technology with customer needs-driven innovation and the company's experience, matured over decades of nuclear power plant design, development, and commercialization.