National Project Management Corporation (NPMC) is to meet with South African ministers to discuss the potential acquisition of 100%of the stock in the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Company from South African state-owned utility Eskom.
NPMC includes a cluster of regional partners in the State of New York, South Africa’s PMBR Company, and UK-based National Grid. The company is planning to commercialise the PBMR design.

"The technology that we are discussing with key political and industry contacts in South Africa takes waste and turns it into more energy through an inherently safe nuclear power plant system," said Robert Abtey, CEO and president, National Project Management Corp.

NPMC hopes to develop a 165 MWe Gas Turbine Modular Helium Reactor, which it says can eliminate both weapons-grade and long-term radioactive toxic material in spent fuel through a process called ‘deep burn.’ The high-temperature reactor also offers the potential for the cogeneration of electricity and hydrogen, alongside process heat applications, it said.