Accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) has attracted con-siderable research attention since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. To improve the accident tolerance of the fuel-cladding systems in the current light-water reactors, it is proposed to develop and deploy (1) an enhanced Zr-based alloy or coated zircaloy for the fuel cladding, (2) alteative cladding materials with better accident toler-ance, and (3) alteative fuels with enhanced accident tolerance and/or a higher U density. This review presents the features of the current UO2-zircaloy system. Different techniques and characters to develop coating materials and enhanced Zr-based alloys are summarized. The features of several selected alteative fuels and cladding materials are reviewed and discussed. The neutronic evaluations of alteative fuel-cladding systems are analyzed. It is expected that one or more types of ATF-cladding systems discussed in the present review will be implemented in commercial reactors.