PBMR myths and facts - Eloff, Donaldson debate whether SA's R30bn nuclear power "Moonshot" can be resuscitated

Loading player...
With both supply and costs of electricity having changed dramatically for SA in the past few years, many are wondering it's time to dust off the blueprints of Eskom's groundbreaking Pebble Bed Modular Reactor nuclear power programme. Cancelled in 2010 due to affordability, the PBMR project had sucked in a staggering R30bn in State investment, employed hundreds of scientists and even created a working prototype at NW University. Theuns Eloff, who was NWU's vice chancellor at the time; and Andrew Donaldson, then DDG at National Treasury, discuss why the project was canned - and whether the new energy equation justifies revisiting the PBMR idea. They spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
26 Aug 2022 9AM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

BN Daybreak: Iran war oil surge; Apple sues OpenAI; Endres on SA's fixed investment woes

In today's BizNews Daybreak we cover the escalating US-Iran conflict and its impact on soaring crude oil prices. In South Africa, Dr. John Endres critiques low fixed investment rates, SARU faces backlash over overpriced Springbok tickets, and over 53,000 undocumented foreign nationals are successfully repatriated. Finally, Apple hits OpenAI with…
13 Jul 11PM 18 min

BizNews Edge: Why the IRR's John Endres is more bullish on SA than Britain

John Endres, CEO of the Institute for Race Relations, tells BizNews that the elite consensus defending BEE is cracking, even as its beneficiaries defend it loudest. He points to the Starlink saga - blocked partly over empowerment shareholding while a pricier, slower rival wins state favour - as proof the…
13 Jul 8AM 24 min

A world-first: the bond that pays out when nature wins

In this BizNews interview, Irakli Rekhviashvili sits down with the three people behind FirstRand's R2.5 billion Cape Water Performance-Based Bond, the first time a commercial bank anywhere in the world has tied a bond's payout to nature. The Nature Conservancy's Louise Stafford traces it to 2018, when Cape Town's dams…
12 Jul 8AM 15 min