The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor

The PBMR project should be seen against the background of the particular economic circumstances of Eskom, the project's dominant investor. On the one hand Eskom is one of the world's largest utilities by generation, with total capacity of almost 40 000 MWe, of which about 85% is coal-fired. South Africa's single nuclear plant, Koeberg (2 x 922 MWe, PWR), supplies about 7% of the nation's power. On the other hand, Eskom is one of the world's lowest-priced power suppliers, with retail tariffs of only about 2 cents (US) per kWh.