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The South African government will stop funding research and development work on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). About 600 of the 800 staff will be let go which is expected to trigger an exodus of nuclear expertise from the country.
Public Enterprise Minister Barbara Hogan told Bloomberg wire service from Cape Town Feb 18 the government can no longer afford to fund the project. According to Bloomberg, Hogan said:
“We have no arguments with the PBMR technology, we just felt we could no longer justify putting more money into the project,” Hogan said. A decision on the future of the technology will be made in August, she said in a statement.
Hogan said that due to economic conditions the country is shifting priorities to education, health care, and development of its industrial base to provide jobs. As of Feb 23, the Economist magazine reported 24% of the adult population is unemployed and GDP declined by nearly 2% in 2009.
Was technology development done in by runaway R&D costs?
The science journal Nature reported Feb 24 the underlying reason for the decision is “runaway costs.” Since 2007 the South African government reportedly invested US$935 million in the project. Nature reported that the cost of the completed demonstration 110 MW plant was estimated to be US$3.9 billion. Another issue is that PBMR, the company developing the reactor, failed to secure customers for the product.
The reactor was to have dual roles of generating electricity and supplying process heat to petro-chemical companies. The helium-cooled reactor was being designed to have a core temperature of 750-1,600 C. Alternative designs intended to use conventional materials in the secondary loop drove an approach to produce steam with temperatures of 450-550 C.
Nature reported that John Walmsley, past president of the South African Society of Nuclear Engineers, said PBMR was trying to do too many things with the design. He called the R&D effort "a BMW" and said PBMR should have scaled back its objectives to a "Morris."
The term “pebble” comes from fuel elements, which are about the size of a tennis ball. Each fuel pebble is enriched uranium wrapped in graphite. Test fuel sent by PBMR to the Idaho National Laboratory last year for assessment was enriched by a Russian vendor to 9.6%. One of the features of the design is its inherent safety. The fuel elements are designed to avoid a melt-down if the helium coolant is lost.
Conventional LWR reactor tender put off
PBMR had planned to build a fleet of two-dozen pebble bed reactors with the ability to generate electricity in the range of 100-160 MW. Two years ago South Africa issued a tender for conventional light water reactors, but cancelled it when it became clear it did not have the funds to pay for them.
Eskom, which is the state-owned utility that would have been the primary customer for the pebble bed reactor, has not been able to keep up with demand for electricity in South Africa. In January 2008 the country’s mines lost power for a week sending shockwaves through the economy.
U.S. rescue for PBMR in limbo?
Last September PBMR appealed to U.S. Department of Energy Sec. Steven Chu for assistance. World Nuclear News reported Sept 17 a bilateral Agreement on Cooperation in Research and Development of Nuclear Energy was signed in Vienna on 14 September by US energy secretary Steven Chu and South African minister of energy Dipuo Peters.
“Its aim is to facilitate cooperation in advanced nuclear energy systems and reactor technology, and will see the two countries collaborate in R&D of advanced reactor technologies as well as expanding efforts to promote and maintain their nuclear science and engineering infrastructures. The agreement follows on from discussions between the presidents of the two countries during July's G8 summit and further bilateral discussions in August.”
Also in September the Energy Department released a $40 million funding opportunity for design work on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant. It is expected to be a high temperature, gas-cooled reactor. However, the deadline for the announcement of the award of funding was December 2009. DOE officials have not said if or when they expect to make an announcement.
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