Pebble Bed Modular Reactors: South Africa
Leads the World to this New Design
Exelon was negotiating to buy 40 of South Africa's mini nuclear reactors, potentially injecting billions of rands into the local economy. Exelon abandoned the deal in April, 2002. A feasibility study on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, which is being developed by Eskom has been completed and a task team has been established by government to consider the outcome. Exelon, which had a 12.5% stake in the reactor programme, wanted to export the technology to the US. The US has been hard hit by a shortage of generation capacity recently, evidenced by rolling black-outs in California. The total Exelon order would have been worth as much as $6 billion, of which between 30% and 40% would have flowed into South Africa.
Compare to standard boiling water and pressurized water reactors: Click HERE and scroll down page to model.
Exelon said the reactor meets many of the US's needs, being safe and small. It could also be ready for commercial operation by 2007. Eskom, a utility providing 98% of South Africa's electricity, has been working on a 110MW Pebble Bed Modular Reactor since 1993 as part of its quest to find alternative sources of power. Government authorities are now examining the feasibility report in great detail. Eskom is South Africa's largest utility and the fourth largest in the world. With its approximately 40,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Eskom is providing power to half of Africa.
A 14-member team, half of whose members are foreign experts, will meet next month to review the report and is expected to produce its findings by February. THE PEBBLE BED MODULAR REACTOR (PBMR) IS BEING CONSTRUCTED AND TESTED AT KOEBERG & THE PROPOSED FUEL PRODUCTION PLANT IS LOCATED IN PELINDABA.
America's current generation of 60's & 70's technology nuclear power plants are either ending their useful life or are being retrofitted and relicensed for an additional 20-30 years of use. We need the best designed, managed and operated plants in the world to successfully and safely provide the electrical power that America needs for the 21st Century. Utilities should consider the application of PBMR in their retrofitting plans. They should also consider on-site reprocessing and recycling of uranium and MOX production. Moreover, some old, poorly designed and operated facilites will have to be decommissioned. We also need to be sensitive to the concerns that deregulation and recent license transfers could affect decommissioning funds. Costs of decommissioning ranges from $300 million to $400 million per plant. The NRC has licensed 125 nuclear power plants for a limited time. Utilities have sold or are in the process of selling all or part of 15 plants. Another 30 plants have had licenses transferred.
Sources: All Africa Global Media (AllAfrica.com), Wash Post.
The Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) is unique to the UK and is the second type of nuclear reactor to be run in theUK. In all, 15 AGR reactors have been built and run in the UK since 1963. (All of the UK's AGR reactors are operated by a company called British Energy.) 
