All systems go for South Africa's nuclear reactor (pebble bed modular reactor)

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20080322090000176C998315

Controversy and lack of support may have delayed it for almost three years, but the hi-tech nuclear reactor that will produce South Africa's electricity is forging ahead.

The R17-billion capital investment project will provide one of the solutions to SA's power problem by 2013, according to Robert Peters, a senior consultant at the fuel development laboratories at the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor.

The high-temperature helium gas-cooled reactor is the first in a new generation. The project entails building a demonstration reactor at Koeberg outside Cape Town and a pilot fuel plant at Pelindaba near Pretoria.

The demonstration reactor design is completed, and construction is due to start next year, with the first fuel to be loaded four years later. If successful, another 10 plants could be built.

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