Editing Pebble bed modular reactor (section)

=== Wind down in 2010 ===
In February 2010 the South Africa government announced it had stopped funding the development of the pebble bed modular reactor, and PBMR (Pty) stated it was considering 75% cuts in staff.<ref name=WNN-20100218>{{cite news|url=http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C_PBMR_facing_massive_cuts_1802101.html|title=PBMR facing massive cuts|date=18 February 2010|publisher=World Nuclear News|accessdate=2010-03-16}}</ref> The decision was taken because no customer or investor for PBMR was found. Unresolved technical items, a substantial increase of costs and a 2008 report from [[Forschungszentrum Jülich]] about major problems in operation of the [[AVR reactor|German pebble bed reactor AVR]]<ref name=Moormann-2008>{{cite web |url=http://juwel.fz-juelich.de:8080/dspace/bitstream/2128/3136/1/Juel_4275_Moormann.pdf |title=A safety re-evaluation of the AVR pebble bed reactor operation and its consequences for future HTR concepts (archived copy) |accessdate=2015-06-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111154905/http://juwel.fz-juelich.de:8080/dspace/bitstream/2128/3136/1/Juel_4275_Moormann.pdf |archivedate=11 January 2012 }}</ref> had discouraged potential investors.<ref name="Hogan"/> International banks refused to support the PBMR project by loans. PBMR's CEO resigned on March, 8th 2010.

In May 2010 Westinghouse withdrew from the PBMR consortium, which led to an end of the South African engagement in NGNP.<ref name="Hogan"/>

On 25 May 2010 the company announced to staff that it intends to implement a "Care and Maintenance" Strategy. This involves the reduction of staff to 9. The stated purpose of the proposed structure is; preserve PBMR as a legal entity, preserve and optimise IP, preserve HTR license, preserve assets and solicit new investors. The strategy assumes that keeping on 9 employees in the medium term will leave sufficient funding to take PBMR to March 2013. The remaining employees will serve to end of October 2010. Some funding is foreseen for dismantling of the PBMR fuel fabrication laboratories in 2011.

In Sept 2010 the SA govt announced that in future, the [[South African nuclear program]] will concentrate on conventional [[light water reactor]]s.<ref name = "Hogan">{{cite web |url=http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&sid=13029&tid=18561 |title=Address by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Barbara Hogan, to the National Assembly, on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor |author=Barbara Hogan |publisher=South African Government Information |date=16 September 2010 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921060457/http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&sid=13029&tid=18561 |archivedate=21 September 2013}}</ref>

The NGNP project will continue on HTGRs with prismatic fuel elements, not with pebbles as in PBMR, as was announced in February 2012.

[[South African rand|R]]9.244 billion (US$1.3 billion) had been invested in the PBMR project. Over 80% came from the South African government, with smaller amounts from [[Eskom]] (8.8%), [[Westinghouse Electric Company|Westinghouse]] (4.9%), Industrial Development Corporation (4.9%) and [[Exelon]] (1.1%).<ref name=nei-20170402>{{cite news |url=http://www.neimagazine.com/news/newssecond-thoughts-on-south-africas-pebble-bed-reactor-5776340 |title=Second thoughts on South Africa's pebble-bed reactor |publisher=Nuclear Engineering International |date=2 April 2017 |accessdate=6 April 2017}}</ref>