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Cape Town -
The future of developing South Africa's pebble-bed nuclear reactor technology by the PBMR company is, according to the Solidarity union, hanging by a thread because of insufficient funding.
Solidarity issued a statement to say that PBMR chief executive Jaco Kriek told staff in December that it seemed government would not make more money available for the project. He apparently also told employees there was sufficient money to continue with the project only until April this year.
According to Solidarity, Kriek warned employees that large-scale retrenchments could follow because of the lack of finance.
PBMR spokesperson Tom Ferreira confirmed that government was currently reviewing its plans for the PBMR, in collaboration with Eskom and the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa.
Ferreira says the PBMR's shareholders (the state, Eskom, the Industrial Development Corporation and the American group Westinghouse) are considering various options, but no decision can be taken in isolation from government's broad nuclear power plan.
According to Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans, the situation at de PBMR is already looking precarious because the company is currently having to manage with R40m less a month. Most of the company's fixed-term contractors were informed earlier this month that their contracts were being cancelled.
Kriek previously informed Sake24.com that contracts with suppliers in Germany, Spain and Japan for delivery of components for the first demonstration plant at Koeberg had been suspended and that construction of the plant would probably be deferred for two years.
Kleynhans said government had a responsibility to stick to the project because it had committed itself to nuclear power in the nuclear energy policy approved in June 2008, and because this technology is one of South Africa's biggest national assets.
Solidarity is concerned about losing the critical skills of highly trained scientists. The union knows of several experts at the facility who are considering offers from overseas in light of the uncertainty.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.