Westinghouse Takes Over PBMR Shareholding
PBMR (Pty) Ltd
2 March 2006
The US nuclear company Westinghouse is now one of the investors in South Africa's PBMR (Pty) Ltd, the company responsible for the inherently safe Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) technology.
Westinghouse has decided to take over the 15% shareholding previously held by UK-government owned British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL). Westinghouse is wholly-owned by BNFL. The share transfer was part of BNFL's restructuring process and the UK government's decision to sell Westinghouse.
PBMR's other investors are the South African Government, the South African utility Eskom and the South African Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). Eskom intends to phase out its shareholding in PBMR (Pty) Ltd in order to become a client of the technology, rather than a developer of it.
Westinghouse is the world's pioneering nuclear power company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant projects and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse designs, builds, maintains and services nuclear power reactors, plants and fuel all over the globe. Today, it is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants.
Westinghouse is also a world leader in pressurized-water reactor (PWR) technology, with its AP1000 design, an advanced/passive 1,100 MWe design that is the only generation III+ plant to receive Design Certification from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jaco Kriek, CEO of PBMR (Pty) Ltd, says he is delighted about the development. "We were extremely fortunate to have had an investor like BNFL. They greatly contributed to the success of the project and remained committed even after the withdrawal in 2002 of our previous US investor, Exelon. As we now move into a new phase, we could not have asked for a better replacement and industry partner than Westinghouse. They are ideally equipped to support PBMR in the construction phase and the future marketing of the reactors and fuel on a global scale.
Dr Regis Matzie, senior vice-president and chief technology officer of Westinghouse, firmly believes that the South African PBMR technology will become the world's first successful commercial generation IV reactor. "The PBMR technology offers an enormous potential to expand the use of nuclear energy both in the electrical generation sector and the process heat sector. Its modular size and flexibility of applications provide a unique opportunity to address markets that nuclear energy has generally not pursued in the past."