Abstract:

It is estimated that electricity demand in South Africa could outstrip supply by current power stations between 2005 and 2010. Furthermore, the emphasis on export has lead to more and more large industrial plants being erected near the coast resulting in load growth in coastal areas, away from the traditional Gauteng industrial hart land. This, in turn, increased the burden on the Eskom power transmission network and gave rise to a growing need for smaller, distributed power generation units.
The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) offers a unique combination of advantages to address this need, namely:

• Inherent safety characteristics.
• Low environmental impact.
• Small unit size conducive to distributed generation.
• Short construction periods.
• Excellent load following capability.
• High load factor.
• Competitive economics.

Besides these factors, it is also envisaged that the project will offer substantial potential for export, job creation and expansion of the local technology base.
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of nuclear power and specific PBMR related issues and to show why the PBMR offers such an attractive solution to future power supply needs.