Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa) MD Knox Msebenzi on Friday said nuclear is still the most viable option, from an environmental and economic standpoint, to add to the country’s baseload electricity generation capacity.

This comes after the release of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s 'State of Capture' report, which delved into the close relationship between President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family, with widespread allegations of influence peddling strengthening calls from civil society for closer scrutiny of and in many cases the scrapping of the procurement of government’s new nuclear build programme amid concerns over possible corruption.

Msebenzi stressed that the association stood firmly against any form of corruption and supported calls for the nuclear procurement process to be executed in a professional manner for the benefit of socioeconomic growth and development.

“We further support efforts to bring in additional measures to ensure a competitive and transparent procurement process. It must also be noted that corruption is unacceptable across the board and is not only associated with specific technologies.

“Our role as an organisation and as a responsible corporate citizen is to insist and monitor transparency and honesty in all dealings prior to, during and after the release of the request for proposals,” Msebenzi said.

Niasa has made itself available to engage on all aspects of the roll-out of nuclear in South Africa, including finding solutions to execute the programme in a just, fair and open way.

Cabinet confirmed this week that power utility Eskom would lead the nuclear procurement process, while the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation will procure the fuel-cycle and multipurpose reactor components of the programme.

The Department of Energy will oversee the process as the “programme coordinator”.