Good progress has been made with regards to the R10 billion Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), since 86% of the intellectual property has been packaged for preservation.
This is according to deputy minister of public enterprises, Dikobe Ben Martins, delivering the department's budget vote.
He explained that, due to fiscal constraints and the PBMR's failure to secure an investor or partner, government decided to place the nuclear project into care and maintenance to protect and preserve its intellectual property and assets.
“Eskom has hosted the PBMR company since 1 April 2012, and will do so until the end of its care and maintenance phase in 2013, when a final decision on its future will be taken.”
The deputy minister also said, in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) has commenced an intellectual property audit of the PBMR, in order to ensure a sound strategy to protect its future value.
“A skills audit has also been conducted to ascertain how current expertise could best be utilised in future nuclear endeavours.”
Worth zilch
In October, the DPE said, after costing government R10 billion, the PBMR has a net asset value of zero and can probably be sold for scrap at R16 million.
However, under its transfer payments for 2010/11 section in the annual report, the department notes that it transferred R20 million to the project during the financial year.
In September 2010, then minister Barbara Hogan announced government would pull the plug on the nuclear project, saying it was no longer worthwhile to invest in it.
The project now only has nine staff members, operating from a facility for which the lease expires in March 2013.
The PBMR was started in 1999, with the aim of developing a new form of nuclear power generation. It's a helium-cooled, high-temperature reactor.
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