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South Africa: pebble-bed nuclear reactor a dud? Eskom in deep financial loss

South Africa’s pebble-bed demo plant postponed indefinitely, official says

NUCLEONICS WEEK SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

South Africa’s pebble-bed high-temperature reactor

demonstration plant has been indefinitely postponed due to
lack of financing, the head of the company promoting the
small modular reactor said last week……

The Demonstration Pilot Plant was originally aimed for
construction at Eskom’s Koeberg site near Cape Town, but
the reactor design and capacity has changed several times
over the 15 years it has been in gestation, and the commissioning
date has been pushed into the future. The most
recent date, given this summer, was 2018, but Kriek said that
would have been possible if the project had been funded
and the reactor licensed, which was not the case. He said a
date of 2021 might be possible but “those activities now
depend on the funding model for the reactor.”
He confirmed that the DPP was most recently projected
to cost 31 billion rand (US$4.2 billion) but said the number
is theoretical because there is in reality no project……

Eskom, which has been trying for years to reduce its
stake in PBMR, has suffered deeply from the financial crisis
and government-authorized rate hikes have been insufficient
to stem its record losses and fund planned investments. The
company canceled a planned near-term nuclear plant project
early this year and postponed plans for a larger fleet of
PWRs due to lack of financing…

September 18, 2009 - Posted by | business and costs, South Africa | , , ,

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