The exciting South African nuclear power development programme has taken a few major strides over the past few months.

The environmental-impact assessment team have submitted their report concerning nuclear power sites. They have recommended that the best site to start with is the Thyspunt site, south of Port Elizabeth. It is actually close to Oyster Bay, which is just south of Jeffreys Bay.

In a parallel action, from the side of Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, progress is being made towards the issuing of the procurement notice documents, which will result in the selection of one or more foreign partners.

Meanwhile, the yearly Nuclear Africa conference is fast approaching. Nuclear Africa 2016 will be held on March 16, 17 and 18 in the Centurion area. Joemat-Pettersson will be a keynote speaker, as will South African Nuclear Energy Corporation CEO Phumzile Tshelane.

The main objective of Nuclear Africa conferences is to bring people together to quicken the progress of the project. During my career, I have been to many science conferences designed to the traditional format, where the knowledgeable lecturer stands up on stage and presents to the audience, who are there to listen. There is then, usually, a question-and-answer (Q&A) session, during which the audience can ask questions like: “What was the temperature at your cutting blades?”

You will find that there is no Q&A session in a Nuclear Africa conference. Instead, there are large ‘discussion sessions’. The difference is critical. In a Nuclear Africa conference, it is assumed that there are highly knowledgeable audience members, who themselves have valuable things to say. So, a discussion session is designed to encourage the audience to not only ask short questions, but also give distinct opinions or open new lines of discussion.

So, a Nuclear Africa conference is designed to address the progress of the project, and not just the academics of nuclear power.

The conference will feature foreign speakers – from countries such as Russia, China and elsewhere – who will explain what they can offer.

At this point, it is most important to emphasise that the authorities have indicated that there must be significant localisation. A figure of 50% has been put down as a target. This is completely reasonable.

So, what this tells me is that there is a huge amount of money available for South African companies. However, what it also says is that significant project collaboration is required. If some company can produce pumps, for example, these pumps have to be certified to the relevant quality codes, so a quality inspection company has to be involved. This creates scope for various private inspection companies to develop capability in the nuclear field.

Indeed, there is vast scope for companies that have never even thought of getting into nuclear to now contemplate joining the nuclear family. Most of the nuclear construction is quite normal, so to speak, and consists of pipes and valves and laying electrical cabling, control room construction and the development of a wide range of rather conventional aspects.

We are also drawing in universities and research establishments so that we can integrate their capability. For example, they can carry out X-ray examination and chemical and physical analysis to determine if a weld has correctly formed the bond that is required. So, if some company wants to develop a new welding process, it would be good to work with such an institution from the start.
The nuclear build project will be a major development for South Africa. The world is watching us. We need the electricity; so, the sooner we get going, the better.