Great minds come together at Nuclear Africa 2014

4th April 2014

By: Kelvin Kemm

  

Font size: - +

The Nuclear Africa 2014 nuclear power conference unfolded extremely well and according to plan.

The conference was designed to achieve objectives and was intentionally laid out with a plan in mind.

Part of the conference design was to incorporate considerable discussion time. With this in mind, there was a third day to the conference, which was a networking day.

The networking day was at a different venue, the Sunset Boma. We had a sheep braai, a complimentary bar and loads of good food – all professionally supplied by the ever smiling hosts, Molly and Hans.

So many conferences, particularly those organised by professional conference organisers, are a case of take any random set of speakers and pack them into the day, with no plan or strategy in mind. Those companies care nothing about the topic at hand or any outcome. In the case of Nuclear Africa, we do care. We care very much. We want to see the nuclear programme in South Africa progress as fast as possible, in the most professional manner possible.

Energy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins was a keynote speaker and gave a positive image of nuclear power and encouraged South African industry to forge ahead in preparing to become part of the international nuclear import- export market.

South African Nuclear Energy Corporation CEO Phumzile Tshelane also showed enthu- siasm and projected to delegates that South Africa has an advanced nuclear capacity in nuclear technology that is internationally recognised.

Nuclear regulator Dr Bismark Tyobeka projected that the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) must work together with the nuclear industry to advance the nuclear objectives of government.

However, the major responsibility of the NNR is to protect the safety and security of people and property. As a result, the NNR will not hesitate to intervene to stop any nuclear function which is not being executed in a professional and safe manner.

During the session chaired by Sisa Njikelana, chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of Energy, we heard a presentation by Nikolay Drozdov, of Russian nuclear company Rosatom. He indicated that Rosatom appre- ciated that it would be necessary to work closely with South Africans in any nuclear development. A similar sentiment was projected by Attie Ferreira, of Westinghouse.

From the South African perspective, it is being made clear that South Africans must be in control of the overall project management of the nuclear project. Also note that ‘the nuclear project’ does not refer to the construction of only one nuclear power station – we are talking of building nuclear continuously for 100 years and beyond. South Africa must put its stamp on the way things are done, right from the beginning.

Des Muller, of construction company Group Five, showed clearly that South Africa has the skills and experience to build major undertakings, such as a nuclear power plant. Most of a nuclear power plant is very similar to a large coal-fired power plant. They both have major concrete structures, pipes, valves, electrical control systems and much more which is not directly related to the actual nuclear part inside the nuclear reactor vessel.

Members of the public tend to worry that a nuclear power plant is some strange, highly complex system way beyond the capability of local industry to construct. This is just not true. However, the attitude of the public is a most important part of the whole equation. This fact was very ably illu- strated by the presentation of Dr Alex Tsela, CEO of Mzanzi Energy, who showed how different sections of the public have their own fears concerning nuclear. He correctly pointed out that each set of fears, real or imaginary, had to be addressed so that the nuclear project could progress with public support, rather than public resistance.

Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation, showed how important eco- nomic perceptions are in the nuclear programme. Public and business perceptions, real or not, shape policy approaches. Louw said that, from an economics point of view, the tsunami which struck the Japanese nuclear plant at Fukushima showed that nuclear power is so safe that many extremely expensive safety precautions could actually now be relaxed instead of tightened.

He said that a cost-benefit analysis of Fukushima showed, in economic terms, that people got more than their money’s worth. He warned that one should not pay too much for a false sense of security, which would raise the electricity price.

Nuclear Africa 2014 brought a considerable group of major minds together, ranging from political power and influence to the deep nuclear intellect, and construction might and maturity.

The conference was also graced by US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, who was given a short courtesy speaking slot. He expressed admiration for South Africa’s nuclear history and ability and said that the US very much wanted to work with South Africa on nuclear power developments now and in the future.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION