France has re-affirmed its support, including possible financial support, for South Africa’s nuclear energy programme.

“Concerning the financial and training aspects, the French government is willing to commit itself within the framework of the [bilateral] cooperation agreement signed last year,” French Foreign Trade Minister Anne-Marie Idrac tells Engineering News Online exclusively.

“We have a special situation here. For many, many years, Areva and other French companies have been partners in the existing [Koeberg nuclear power] plant. A large part of the maintenance of the plant is coordinated with French engineers, with EdF. There have been many technical exhanges between our nuclear industry and the South African nuclear industry. The French government very much encourages this cooperation.”

Although Eskom has postponed its Nuclear-1 atomic power station programme, South Africa remains committed to nuclear power to diversify its energy base and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And French companies are eager to win the contract to build Nuclear One, once the go-ahead is given.

“My presence here [in South Africa] is a signal that the French government is totally behind French industry in the nuclear field – Areva, EdF, Alsthom, and, behind them, smaller companies,” she affirms.

On Thursday afterrnoon (May 28) the Steering Committee of the French-South African Economic Cooperation Committee, set up in terms of the cooperation agreement signed between the two countries last year, held its first meeting.

“The Steering Committee will deal with all energy issues, including nuclear,” she highlights.

In her address to the Seminar on French/South African Nuclear Industry Partnership on Thursday morning, Idrac said that “France and South Africa have long established relations in the nuclear field since the construction of Koeberg....France is very willing to discuss the energy challenges ahead of us and French companies are willing to bring their expertise and know-how to South Africa.”

Talking about France, she pointed out that, ”as you know, our country has very limited natural resources. Our vulnerability became clear during the oil shocks of the 1970s.”

It was these shocks that led France to adopt nuclear energy as it main source of baseload power.

Idrac summarised the four objectives of French energy policy – short and medium term energy security; achieving competitive energy costs for French business and citizens (“nuclear remains, by far, the cheapest form of energy for France,” she stressed); more recently, to minimise the environmental side-effects of the production of energy; and, finally, but not least although often forgotten, to support regional development and support the upliftment of the socioeconomically disadvantaged in France.