The South African Government has approved the lifting of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) nuclear technology from care and maintenance. “This decision provides the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) with a legal basis to engage with potential international partners and investors for the revival and further development of the project,” Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told a post-Cabinet briefing.
South Africa began developing the PBMR in the 1990s, but in 2010, the government ceased funding for the project citing a lack of viable customers or investors, leading to significant staff reductions and ultimately halting development efforts. PBMR was put into care and maintenance and was reincorporated into state power utility Eskom in 2012.
The pebble bed reactor design was developed in Germany and was used there in the 1970s and 1980s. South Africa became involved in 1988 when Johan Slabber – then with the Atomic Energy Commission (later Necsa) – met with the German pebble bed reactor scientists. The PBMR design was for a small-scale high-temperature reactor (HTR) using graphite-coated spherical uranium oxycarbide tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel, with helium as the coolant, able to supply process heat for industry as well as generating electricity.
Slabber later joined the South African systems engineering company IST and introduced the concept to IST’s Dieter Matzner and to Eskom’s David Nicholls. The three founded PBMR (Pty) Ltd in 1993. In 1995, the South African government lent support to the project, and in 2000 approved the detailed feasibility phase. The PBMR project generated more than 100 patents between 1999 and 2004.
Eskom committed to purchase a demonstration reactor and to operate it. Necsa drew up plans to acquire 24 PBMR reactors over the next 20 years to contribute 4000 MWe to the southern African grid. The PBMR Test Reactor was to be built at the Koeberg NPP site north of Cape Town. A large number of domestic and foreign subcontractors became involved in the project, which developed a massive supporting infrastructure. Principal PBMR facilities included:
- Headquarters in Centurion;
- The Pebble Bed Micro Model at the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University to test gas turbine principles;
- A High Pressure Test Unit and High-Temperature Test Unit, which were part of the Heat Transfer Test Facility at the Potchefstroom Campus;
- A Helium Test Facility at Pelindaba; a high temperature, high pressure rig designed to test key systems before going to site; and
- A prototype fuel fabrication plant, including kernel production, coated particle production, fuel sphere production, and quality control.
In 2020, Eskom said it wanted to move PBMR out of care and maintenance, but this was not achieved at that time. However, all PBMR intellectual property, including designs, specifications, and reactor engineering calculations has been preserved. The company retains ownership of nearly 300 patents. PBMR’s large Helium Test Facility is still operational, and the Fuel Development Laboratory is still fully equipped. PBMR’s management system, which is ISO 9001 and ASME NQA-1 compliant, has also been preserved.
Ntshavheni said the decision to remove PBMR from care and maintenance would also enable Necsa, which had since been selected to oversee the PBMR, to build on the progress already made and scale the project accordingly.
“The long-term plan is for South Africa to become the leading supplier of small modular reactors (SMRs) to ultimately re-fit decommissioned coal-fired units, and off-grid applications including large power users and smaller grids across Africa,” she added.
Electricity & Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who welcomed the decision, had expressed regret at the move to halt the PBMR programme. He argued that the market for SMRs was being spurred by data-centre investments. He stressed, however, that the PBMR decision should not be directly linked to the 5,200 MWe allocated to nuclear by 2049 in the recently published Integrated Resource Plan 2025.
In a recent presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Electricity and Energy, Necsa listed six programmes that it intended pursuing. These included:
- positioning itself in the development of SMRs
- re-establishing the front-end nuclear fuel cycle;
- extending the life of the Safari-1 research reactor;
- building a new multipurpose nuclear research reactor to increase radioisotope production;
- beneficiating fluorochemicals; and
- capacitating and strengthening skills development for the nuclear industry.
Necsa CEO Loyiso Tyabashe welcomed the decision to lift the PBMR from care and maintenance and transfer custodianship of the technology to Necsa. At a briefing hosted by Dr Ramokgopa, he said the immediate focus would be to reactivate the physical assets associated with the PBMR. These included the fuel development laboratory for nuclear fuel qualification and the helium test facility.
He added that it would be possible to reopen the fuel development laboratories to undertake further research and development into the manufacturing and qualification of HTR fuel with a view to building the manufacturing capacity to export the fuel globally. “There is currently only one supplier of HTR fuel, namely China, which may not be enough to meet future global demand,” he noted.
Necsa would also be engaging local and international investors and technology partners for financing and collaboration on the PBMR. However, he noted that this was a highly competitive area, indicating that there were more than 80 SMR designs under development globally, with Dr Ramokgopa acknowledging that South Africa’s decision to mothball the PBMR had resulted in the loss of both time and skills.
Tyabashe also underlined government’s fiscal constraints and stressed the need to secure funding through partnerships. Necsa would, therefore, undertake a “vendor identification” process to select a partner to “co-develop and operate South Africa’s first SMR demonstration reactor at Pelindaba”.
It was also calculated that a further ZAR30bn ($1.75bn) would be required to commercialise the technology, in addition to the ZAR10bn already spent on its development.
