Company Profile

PBMR is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom Enterprises (Pty) Limited, which is a subsidiary
of the national electricity utility of South Africa, Eskom Holdings Limited (Eskom). It is governed under the terms of a joint-venture cooperation agreement between the founder investors.

Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Limited (PBMR) 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.

The PBMR project is one of the most technologically advanced capital investment projects undertaken in South Africa since 1994. 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.

PBMR is a multi-product enterprise that can access several markets and leverage its attractiveness in both electricity generation and process heat markets.

The high operating temperature of 900 degrees Celsius provides flexibility to generate process heat for a variety of industrial chemical processes, including coal liquefaction, and the production of hydrogen (H2) in the longer term. Another PBMR design is aimed at steam process heat applications (500 MW) operating at 720 degrees Celsius, which provides the basis for penetrating the nuclear heat market as a viable alternative for carbon-burning, high-emission heat sources.

The South African Cabinet approved South Africa’s hydrogen and fuel cell strategy in May 2007. PBMR has been able to take the lead in providing a platform for business planning to develop nuclear hydrogen solutions aligned to South African businesses, universities, science councils and the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa). The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has adopted this process as its own, and it will form the basis of a hydrogen production hub and an associated business plan.

PBMR also plans for and schedules all activities that will be required to successfully commercialise the business in the long term. Two immediate long-term objectives call for the development of fuel manufacturing technology for a commercial fuel plant and the design of a Process Heat Plant (PHP).

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. Furthermore, in terms of sustainability, the South African government recognises 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.

This is the first time that South Africa is designing, licensing and building its own nuclear reactor.