The Solidarity trade union has called for the merging of South Africa’s nuclear companies in an attempt to save as much as possible of the nuclear science, engineering and technological expertise gained by the pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) programme.

“We ask for one institution. We do have Necsa [South African Nuclear Energy Corporation] at the moment. All nuclear institutions should come together. Necsa and the people from the PBMR should be merged together,” Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleyhans told Engineering News Online on Friday. “This is part of our proposal. The issue for us is the skills, the knowledge, of the employees at PBMR.”

The PBMR technology was being developed by the predominantly State-owned PBMR Company (Necsa is also State-owned), but in February, the government effectively terminated the programme by announcing very severe cuts in the budget allocated to it. As a result, the PBMR Company is going to have to retrench up to 75% of its 800 employees.

Indeed, the company is now effectively surviving on a US government contract awarded in March to a consortium including the PBMR Company and headed by its only private-sector (and foreign) shareholder, Westinghouse Electric.

In a press release, Solidarity called for the establishment of what it called a “National Nuclear Architect Engineering” (NNAE) institution in order to preserve the nuclear engineering skills, knowledge and jobs created by the PBMR programme. This NNAE would be created by merging the PBMR Company with Necsa.

The union pointed out that the country still has a national Nuclear Energy Policy, including plans to construct new pressurised water reactor nuclear power plants. “Skills established during the development of the [PBMR] company’s technology over a period of more than ten years in the company, supporting companies and training institutions, are of critical importance in supporting the government’s planned nuclear programmes and the local nuclear and technology industries,” argued Kleynhans in the press release.