It has been a crazy, busy week for me – so much has been happening that I almost missed the news coming out of South Africa at the HTR Conference 2006. It is still a busy time, so I will simply point out that Google News indexes South African news web sites. Searching with “pebble bed reactor” or “high temperature reactor” provides links to some interesting articles.
There were several items that deeply interested me:
- Frank Wu, CEO of Chinergy talked more about their project in Weihai in the Shandong Province. He indicated that the plant operation is planned to begin in 2010 following a three year construction and testing program.
- South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin indicated that the PBMR should be hooked to the grid in about seven years.
- The US Department of Energy has announced the awarding of three contracts for pre-conceptual designs for a high temperature gas reactor. The contracts, totaling $8 million were awarded to a team led by Westinghouse, one led by Areva, and one led by General Atomics. The Westinghouse team includes South African based companies PBMR Pty Ltd and M-Tech Industrial.
