South African private sector company Steenkampskraal Thorium Limited (STL) is developing a design for a small modular reactor (SMR) which it calls the High Temperature Modular Reactor (HTMR). This is being done using expertise developed in the country by the now effectively abandoned Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project. Like the PMBR, the smaller HTMR will use small spherical fuel elements, or “pebbles”. STL, which also owns the Steenkampskraal thorium and rare earths mine in the Western Cape, is developing the 100 MWt HTMR-100, the concept design of which has been completed. This would be able to produce up to 35 MWe.
