South African nuclear reactor company PBMR feels assured that it will secure additional investment during the course of this year.

"We have a good concept. We are making sure that our business case is as attractive as possible," highlights PBMR company communications consultant Tom Ferreira, "and we are confident we will get extra funding this year, whether from the government, our other shareholders, or new shareholders. If we don't get any additional money, then the reality is that we will run out of money next year, around March. This does, however, allow us sufficient time to present a sustainable business case to the government, based on a commercial business model."

The company is developing the fourth-generation, high-temperature, gas-cooled, pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR).

The PBMR company is currently examining the possibility of developing a dual-role reactor, instead of the dedicated electricity-generating unit originally planned. Under consideration, is a system that can service both the electricity and process heat markets.

There are a large number of industrial processes that require superheated gases or steam. A gas-cooled PBMR will have outlet temperatures of up to 950˚ C and so will be able to produce the necessary superheated gases.

Ferreira points out, however, that high-pressure steam and cogeneration applications can be achieved with temperatures of less than 800˚ C. Process steam delivery is the near-term market entry application, with hydrogen production as the follow-on.

"Process heat applications for the PBMR only began to surface about two or three years ago," he explains. "First, there appeared the New Generation Nuclear Plant project in the US. Then [South African coal-to-liquids and petrochemical group] Sasol approached us, and then Canadian oil sands companies."

If the PBMR company does go ahead with the idea of developing the reactor as a dual-purpose machine from the start, it will do so in collaboration with its potential customers, including South African electricity utility Eskom.