{"id":337094,"date":"2020-01-30T20:21:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T18:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=337094"},"modified":"2020-01-30T20:23:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T18:23:22","slug":"eskom-looking-at-nuclear-power-reactors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/337094-eskom-looking-at-nuclear-power-reactors.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom looking at nuclear power reactors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., South Africa\u2019s indebted state power utility, is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tenderbulletin.eskom.co.za\/Tenders\/Docs?TENDERID=43443\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gauging interest<\/a>\u00a0from companies to develop and build small modular reactors using so-called pebble-bed technology and supplying the fuel they would need.<\/p>\n<p>It will hold a meeting on the program on Feb. 12 and submissions must be made by the end of next month, the Johannesburg-based company said in a tender announcement Thursday. Eskom could also seek to sell all or part of the business.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement appears to revive a project mooted by Eskom in 1999, when it forecast development of the technology could generate billions of rand a year from licensing to other utilities.<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, the utility held discussions with Areva SA and later Westinghouse Electric Co. took a stake in the Eskom unit\u00a0<span id=\"09304894-4379-11ea-8427-000f535001b0\">tasked<\/span>\u00a0with developing it. The project was closed in 2010 and employees associated with it lost their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPBMR remains capable of restarting within a relatively short period of time, or, alternatively its technology\u201d could be taken over by another company, Eskom said. \u201cCompanies interested in investing in PBMR reactor technology or fuel technology, securing an equity stake in PBMR, buying PBMR technology or products or embarking on other potential relationships or transactions\u201d should submit proposals.<\/p>\n<p>The technology was initially developed in Germany and was further advanced in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa spent $980 million\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wiseinternational.org\/nuclear-monitor\/872-873\/high-temperature-gas-cooled-zombie-smrs?_cf_chl_jschl_tk_=bb74efdb2d741139a42ae7dd3abde5db8116bcf7-1580385582-0-AXO29pDIUGFWpVp9O6GCCNVOWAzo0RU32mQOoz65KjzJQ8uPEKkKYDeoEoVypIzkY455RmhTNCzDQJ5mWyQFcfuc-jcXh6tMt15FUaGUw9lMdM9Z8XGrYbVvfLGo-8bVlkX2XdNVxXzk3s8go0z9BgdnWgwJIRFM6LGPbgfQ5rmmTExP2V_11lVgCeGAl1msVluTJq0nX_qhV5xkXVIPNYF41DsfbbEQZbp8bGXzVN-SWx0xD7eqHa5KEiDH1VpXr4ipf95EsZzc_C5PPEaljT99uiFUgFgBtNiSRGeOGn4h-VPLecFJNqbXRiuzZ4b9cRk2Bpgu17FSkj5IKwJ1ZCt2NwMndm-0q19uWcbd9lNk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trying<\/a>\u00a0to develop the technology before abandoning the project, according to the World Information Service on Energy, or WISE. At the time of the unit\u2019s\u00a0<span id=\"09304a1a-4379-11ea-8427-000f535001b0\">closure<\/span>, building a prototype plant would have cost $1.8 billion, it said.<\/p>\n<p>China is currently trying to develop its own plant based on the technology, according to WISE.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/336730-tesla-model-y-set-to-launch-soon.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Tesla Model Y set to launch soon<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom is\u00a0gauging interest\u00a0from companies to develop and build small modular reactors using so-called pebble-bed technology and supplying the fuel they would need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":324290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[181,22431,15643],"class_list":["post-337094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-nuclear","tag-power-stations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337096,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337094\/revisions\/337096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}