I have stressed time and again that the new nuclear programme is not a ‘purchase’. People in the media love to say how much the nuclear power plants will ‘cost,’ as if someone is going to take a truckload of cash and just pay it over to a foreigner and then return home with nuclear power plants, gift wrapped in a box, so to speak.

That will not happen. What will happen is that South Africans will build the new plants in collaboration with various foreign companies. It will be a South African driving the bulldozer as the access roads to the site are built. It will be South Africans who pour the concrete foundations, cast the concrete walls and then lay water pipes and electrical cabling.

As we move to the more high-tech elements, we want to find out how many South Africans can do that as well. By ‘high tech’, in this context, I mean high-grade welding and accurate machining, and so on.

Throughout the entire nuclear build, quality assurance will be very important. Nuclear probably has the highest level of quality assurance of any industry in the world. Part of this stems from the history of nuclear and the fact that, worldwide, the public have been nervous because of the early association with nuclear weapons. A nuclear reactor cannot explode like a bomb.

The other approach, which developed rapidly over time, was the internationalisation of nuclear. So, today, we have organisations like the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Association of Nuclear Operators, which rely on mutual respect and collaboration.

As a result, countries voluntarily abide by internationally accepted quality assurance standards. By doing this, it also automatically qualifies a fabricator to export internationally, the moment that the fabricator achieves the necessary quality marks.

It is now necessary to say: “What do we mean by this?” In the case of nuclear, there are two major limbs to the quality assurance system: the one is the actual technology of fabricating some item or assembly to the correct standard, and the other is record keeping.

Let us consider the record keeping. If something goes horribly wrong with a nuclear reactor, it can possibly kill a lot of people – just like an aeroplane. If a big truck is riding along and a wheel starts to come loose, the driver will feel it and can pull over to see what is wrong. If a wheel on a big aeroplane starts to wobble badly as the plane lands, the pilot has no option but to finish the landing. If the wheel snaps off, then the plane can crash, with total loss of life. You do not just take the aircraft wheel back to the manufacturer and, under the guarantee, get a new one.

Same with a nuclear reactor. If something breaks, 25 years after it was made, the folks launch a major forensic investigation. They want to know what metal was used, what welding rods were used, how it was machined; what the X-rays show, and so on.

Many South African companies are producing very good-quality products, either up to nuclear standard or nearly there, but operating on the basis of: if it fails, bring it back under the guarantee. For nuclear quality assurance, they have to plan to keep records for about 100 years, bearing in mind that a reactor’s design lifetime is about 60 years and, perhaps, after 60 years, the authorities at the time might decide on a life-extension programme.

Nuclear Africa, together with quality assurance partner EON Consulting, offers courses of this type, certified by international bodies. The courses include mechanical and electrical processes and procedure and other relevant issues. Companies can start right now in organising their quality assurance plans to bring them to nuclear fabrication readiness. With the correct stamp of approval, the world is your oyster, for nuclear assembly exports.