System Development and Integration
M-Tech played a key role in the design, construction and operation of three PBMR test facilities. These facilities include the Pebble Bed Micro Model (PBMM), which started operation in October 2002, the High Pressure Test Unit (HPTU), which started operation in late 2006 and the High Temperature Test Unit (HTTU), which will be commissioned mid 2007.
The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a new type of high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor power plant currently being develop in South Africa, offering advantages such as improved safety and economics, shorter construction times, distributed generation and high temperature availability for process heat applications such as hydrogen production and sea water desalination.
The PBMR utilizes fuel in the form of graphite pebbles, each approximately the size of a tennis ball. The fissile material are situated inside the pebbles, and coated with various heat resistant layers, in order to contain most of the fission products inside the pebbles.
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