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| project status |
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| From a small nuclear engineering company with barely 100 employees
at its inception in 1999, Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd (PBMR)
has grown into one of the largest nuclear reactor design and engineering
companies in the world. In addition to the core team of some 800 people
at the PBMR head-office in Centurion near Pretoria, more than a 1000
people at universities, private companies and research institutes
are involved with the project. |
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| Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Limited is a public-private partnership
comprising the South African government, nuclear industry players
and utilities. The PBMR is a strategic national project due to its
significance to South Africa and its potential in international markets,
as a prospective provider of safe, clean energy. |
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| PBMR’s goal is to be one of the first organisations that successfully
commercialises pebble bed technology for the world’s energy
market. Subject to regulatory and other approvals, the first pebble
bed reactor plant could be commissionedd at Koeberg near Cape Town
by round about 2020. This will be the first time that South Africa
is designing, licensing and building its own nuclear reactor plant.
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| The successful deployment of this leading-edge technology has the
potential to make a significant contribution to local and international
energy supply. In addition, it will contribute to the transformation
of South Africa’s current resource-based economy. |
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| Government support |
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| The South African Government recognises the importance of energy
security and supply and the fact that PBMR can contribute significantly
to local economic growth and development by forming part of a technology-intensive
nuclear manufacturing sector which could, in future, export this technology.
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| The Government therefore regards the PBMR project as one of the
most important capital investment and development projects yet undertaken
in the country. In July 2009 the Minister of Public Enterprises, Ms
Barbara Hogan, gave the assurance that the government remains committed
to the PBMR programme. |
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| She said PBMR could provide the South African economy not only with
electricity, but also other applications such as clean-process heat.
It is therefore and ideal programme to increase the country's exports.
“The PBMR project and company play an extremely important role
in skills development in this country, especially since the nuclear
industry requires functionalities which far exceed those of other
industries,” she said. |
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| Recent developments |
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| In March 2009, PBMR entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of
Tsinghua University and Chinergy Co Ltd of China, whose pebble bed
concept is based on a 10 MW (thermal) research reactor that was started
up in Beijing in December 2000. INET is a top nuclear research and
experimental institute in China. |
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| The objective of the MOU is to facilitate cooperation in a number
of strategic and technical areas relating to high temperature reactor
(HTR) projects in both countries. |
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| In December 2008, PBMR’s Fuel Development Laboratories –
in collaboration with Necsa (the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation)
– successfully manufactured High Temperature Reactor coated
particles containing 9.6% enriched uranium. The coated particles were
shipped to the US and are currently being tested at the Idaho National
Laboratory. |
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| On 6 August 2009, PBMR shipped sixteen graphite spheres containing
enriched uranium to Russia for irradiation tests to demonstrate the
fuel’s integrity under reactor conditions. The spheres –
enriched to 9.6% -- were manufactured in collaboration with Necsa. |
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| The irradiation tests, which will be conducted by the Institute
of Nuclear Materials in Zarechny near Ekaterinburg in Russia, are
the final step in the development of the fuel for the PBMR demonstration
unit and we are keenly anticipating the results. |
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| Over the past few years, PBMR also commissioned a Heat
Transfer Test Facility (HTTF) at Potchefstroom near Johannesburg,
and a Helium Test Facility (HTF)
at Pelindaba. |
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| Products and services |
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| While PBMR’s design and development efforts were initially
focused mainly on electricity generation, it has become increasingly
apparent that the high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor technology
will also enable access to markets that call for process heat applications.
To this end, PBMR announced in February 2009 its intention to take
advantage of near-term market opportunities based on customer requirements
to service both the electricity and process heat markets. |
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| The company subsequently decided to modify the design planned for
the Demonstration Power Plant project at Koeberg near Cape Town to
also service potential customers such as the Next Generation Nuclear
Plant (NGNP) project in the US, which is funded by the US Department
of Energy, oil sands producers in Canada and the South African petro-chemical
company Sasol. |
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| The design is aimed at process heat applications utilising steam
at temperatures of up to 570°C, which provides the basis for penetrating
the nuclear heat market as a viable alternative for carbon-burning,
high-emission heat sources. |
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| In South Africa, there is interest in the possible use of PBMR technology
in petro-chemical complexes, to either produce process steam and/or
hydrogen to upgrade coal products. In Canada, there is interest from
oil sands producers to use the PBMR to produce the temperature and
associated pressure needed to extract bitumen from oil sands instead
of gas-fired plants. |
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| In the USA, PBMR is a partner in an industrial alliance led by Westinghouse
Electric Company which was awarded a contract by the US Department
of Energy (DOE) to consider the PBMR technology as heat source for
producing non-carbon derived hydrogen. The scope for the first phase
of this contract, which has now been completed, was for the pre-conceptual
engineering of a nuclear co-generation plant for the production of
electricity and hydrogen. The PBMR alliance is a leading contender
for the next phase of the NGNP project and is currently preparing
a bid to the DOE based on the new product configuration. |
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| South Africa, through PBMR, has built a reputation and is widely
acknowledged as the world leader in the development of HTR technology.
Consequently, it plays a leading role and influences decision-making
in international forums such as the Generation IV International Forum
(GIF) that consists of 10 participating nations; the High Temperature
Gas Reactor-group of the Multi-National Design Evaluation Panel (MDEP)
that seeks to rationalise the nuclear licensing process among international
regulators; the International Project on Innovative Reactors and Fuel
Cycles (Inpro); and the High Temperature Reactor Technological Network
(HTR-TN), a network of 18 European organisations created to develop
technology for the next generation high temperature reactors. PBMR
has furthermore joined a European initiative, Europairs, which has
objectives similar to the NGNP. |
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| South Africa is also playing an important role in the development
of global design and quality codes, as well as manufacturing standards
for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). |
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| PBMR can contribute significantly to local economic growth and development
by forming part of a technology-intensive nuclear manufacturing sector
which could, in future, export this technology. The South African
government furthermore recognizes the importance of energy security
and supply. This calls for the development and deployment of new technologies
in a sustainable, economic and environmentally sound manner. The PBMR
technology serves to achieve this objective. |
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| Updated: October 2009 |
