The process to lift South Africa’s dormant pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) project from care and maintenance is at an advanced stage, says Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

The research programme into what was essentially the development of small-scale nuclear power stations was shuttered in 2010, owing to a number of reasons, including escalating costs.

Speaking at a media briefing at Windaba 2025 in Cape Town on Wednesday, Ramokgopa said he would probably approach Cabinet to lift the care-and-maintenance programme either at the end of November, or no later than the first quarter of next year.

“The Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) is preparing for the lifting.”

Ramokgopa described scrapping the programme as a decision “we live to regret”, with other countries, such as China, having since perfected the technology.

However, he noted that it was “no use crying over spilt milk”.

He said there was keen interest in Necsa taking up the project again, with “a procession of people” already knocking on the CEO’s door.

“Part of the reason we need to lift the care and maintenance, is that Necsa does not currently have the legal basis to engage with a potential partner.”

Going to Cabinet, however, would open the door to potential suitors.

Ramokgopa said the project would be developed off balance sheet.

“We don’t have money, but we have the infrastructure, and the suitors know that. I’m confident that the financing will be fine.”

Ramokgopa noted that data centres were big investors globally in small modular reactors (SMRs), with the “PBMR the underlying technology for SMRs”.

“That is a huge opportunity we are seeing here. I think we can achieve a lot.”

PBMR Revival Separate from IRP25
Revisiting the PBMR project will be a separate process from the proposed 5.2 GW of nuclear power to be installed by 2039 under the newly released Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025.

The IRP 2025 promises more than 105 000 MW of new generation capacity by 2039, from combined sources, and at an expected investment of R2.2-trillion.

Ramokgopa said the IRP 2025’s 5.2 GW of nuclear power was “not a function of whether we lift the care and maintenance of the PBMR.”

He expected the proposed nuclear investment to be tried and tested technology, such as the pressurised water reactors at use at South Africa’s only nuclear power station – Koeberg, in Cape Town.

“SMRs? I think there are two in the world in commercial operation and we don’t think we’ll have room for experimentation.”

This said, Ramokgopa believed it would be possible to ringfence 100 MW of that 5.2 GW for SMR technology.

“We’ll accept that this is really about a level of experimentation in partnership with people already in that space.”

Ramokgopa cited a scarcity of skills as the biggest risk to the IRP 2025’s nuclear programme.

At peak, when the PBMR had been under development, South Africa had roughly 2 000 engineers at work in the sector, with many of those individuals now employed at some of the top companies in the world, he noted.

The PBMR was a high-temperature, gas-cooled nuclear reactor that used fuel in the form of small, graphite-coated spheres called pebbles. It was developed in South Africa from 1994 to 2009, with the project put on hold in 2010.