PBMR Update and Status on Process Heat Applications Available to Purchase

PBMR (Pty) Ltd. is undertaking the implementation of its demonstration project in Koeberg, South Africa with construction planned to start in 2008. Key test facilities have been completed and full-scale tests of first-of-a-kind components are underway. PBMR (Pty) Ltd., as part of a Westinghouse-led consortium, has been awarded the lead contract for the pre-conceptual design of the NGNP project; which could lead to a major demonstration project in the US some time next decade. Also, PBMR is working with Shaw and Westinghouse to develop several important non-power applications, using the high temperatures available from a 500MWt version of the reactor to produce high pressure steam for oil sands in-situ recovery operations, high temperature energy for steam methane reforming, and for thermal water splitting to produce hydrogen and oxygen. Water splitting offers dramatic improvements in coal-to-methane and coal-to-liquids applications by avoiding the inefficiencies of converting coal to hydrogen, with its associated CO₂ emissions. This paper presents an update of the status of this work and the projected uses of this breakthrough nuclear technology.