Eskom, the South African state-owned electricity supplier, has proposed to develop a new range of small nuclear reactors based on German technology. Even before the plan has received cabinet approval, however, environmentalists and business analysts have attacked Eskom's Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) programme as financially risky and technically difficult. For South African consumers, they add, the reactors may be wholly unnecessary given the country's surplus generating capacity and access to other power sources.