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Pebble Bed project is shut down. Future reactor investments up in the air. This is not a good time to be looking to invest in nuclear energy in South Africa. Eskom, the major utility that would buy them, backed out of a multi-reactor tender a few years ago because it lacked the money to pay for them...

PBMR to lay off 75% of staff 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...

It's a quantum leap in overcoming the "not invented here" paradigm Hat tip to Rod Adams at South Africa and China have agreed to joint development of pebble bed reactor technology A press release from Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd ( PBMR ) of South Africa indicates that firm has...

Target application is Idaho’s Next Generation Nuclear Plant World Nuclear News reports that PBMR in South Africa has  successfully manufactured nuclear fuel “pebbles” at 9.6% enrichment for use in a planned high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR).  The company said the fuel design and fabrication...

High temperature gas cooled reactor design is being developed at Tsinghua University China's Huaneng Group has launched a demonstration of its PBMR nuclear power project, at a plant in Shandong Province according to an English language report on CCTV. Parties involved in the project signed agreements...

Firm will start making large forgings and may invest in Pebble Bed  Reuters reports that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) plans to get into the business of manufacturing large forgings for nuclear reactors including its own 1,700 MWe PWR .  It joins firms in Korea, France, and the U.K. who...

Answer - two heads may be better than one The Idaho National Laboratory ( INL ) is facing a formidable challenge with the release of a request for information (RFI) earlier this month by the Department of Energy (DOE). The government wants to hear from firms that think they can build the Next Generation...

A commercial reactor could be in operation by 2013 After a series of fits and starts development of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) appears to be getting back on track.  According to wire service reports in South Africa the demonstration reactor design is completed, and construction is due...

Process heat applications could drive the project South Africa’s fourth-generation nuclear power technology, the pebble-bed modular reactor ( PBMR ), has a real chance that it could be demonstrated, in a process heat application, at the Idaho National Laboratory ( INL ) near Idaho Falls, ID, according...

Demonstration plants are expensive South Africa has asked for funding from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan to finance all or part of 24 small nuclear power installations, at 160 Mw each, to be built by the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) project. They will need a lot of money because the rollout...

August is a slow month, but there were a few nuclear issues Summer is a time for vacations and taking advantage of the fine weather. That's mostly what I did, so this is a long post that catches up on a lot of the nuclear news that took place anyway. Many of the links from news sources have expired so...

Paperwork is the problem A setback to the pebble bed modular reactor (PMBR) project has been revealed in the annual report of the state-owned entity developing these small-scale, high temperature nuclear power plants. In the annual report to Parliament this week, the chief executive of PMBR Limited,...

Plus staking its claims to PBMR reactor technologies and for NGNP The ink is dry on a contract between Westinghouse and the State Nuclear Power Technology Company of China (SNPTC) to build four AP1000 nuclear plants in that country. The announcement comes one day after Westinghouse announced its acquisition...