Russia’s State-owned nuclear corporation, Rosatom, still believes that nuclear energy has a place in the future development of South Africa. This follows comments made by then Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on Budget Day 2018, which suggested that the country’s planned programme to build a fleet of new nuclear power plants (NPPs) had been significantly postponed.
“[F]or the foreseeable future, we don’t see South Africa needing nuclear [power],” he said in answer to a question. He emphasised that a new NPP programme was not currently affordable, because of the weak financial position of both government and national electricity utility Eskom.
Further, the country currently enjoyed an electricity surplus. As a result, there was no intent to pursue a new NPP programme. And when the electricity supply-and-demand balance was restored, the new demand would be addressed by “the least-cost measures”.
However, nuclear power remained part of government’s policy of having an “energy mix”. Currently, Eskom operates the two-reactor Koeberg NPP, near Cape Town, which has an installed capacity of 1 940 MW and is the only NPP in Africa.
“While Rosatom respects any decision taken by the government of South Africa, we do still believe that nuclear has an important role to play in the country’s energy mix and its future economic development,” said the group’s regional VP: Central and Southern Africa, Viktor Polikarpov, in response to an Engineering News enquiry.
“We remain committed to helping the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe in achieving their goals of a balanced energy mix and rapid economic development,” he affirmed. “We are confident of our world-class technology, unmatched safety standards and highly competitive solutions.”
Separately, the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa) urged government and the energy sector to have a broad perspective in their energy planning and include nuclear in a balanced energy mix. Government should not be distracted by the fact that the country currently had an oversupply of electricity, as planning was concerned with the future, not the present.
“We congratulate the [Finance] Minister on a progressive Budget, although there is no immediate focus on nuclear [energy],” stated Niasa MD Knox Msebenzi, speaking on the sidelines of the Africa Energy Indaba. “As South Africans, we need to align the nation towards a common goal of creating jobs and ensure we do not expend our limited resources on unnecessary distractions. Economic development is key to achieving this and the foundation is a robust energy policy that is forward looking and not laced in emotional sentiments.”
Increasing urbanisation and rising industrial production are expected to result in increasing demand for electricity over the next 20 years. This should be met, Niasa affirmed, by a balanced energy mix which included nuclear as well as other stable and advanced energy technologies. “[W]e do not see nuclear as being in competition with other energy technologies but advocate for a balanced energy mix, which speaks to the economic development ambitions of the country,” he affirmed.
“According to the World Energy Outlook 2016 report published by the International Energy Agency, nuclear energy is one of the preferred methods to mitigate climate change, thus populist rhetoric to label it as unclean are misleading,” he highlighted.