Energy Minister Ben Martins
Photo by: Duane Daws/Creamer Media
South African Energy Minister Ben Martins and an accompanying delegation visited subsidiaries and facilities of nuclear group Rosatom from November 13 to November 15, the Russian State-owned company announced on Monday. The South African delegation included South African Ambassador to Russia Mandisi Mpahlwa, South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (better known as Necsa) CEO Phumzile Tshelane and representatives of national electricity utility Eskom (which is the operator of South Africa’s only nuclear power plant [NPP], at Koeberg near Cape Town).
The visit began on November 13 with a tour of the OJSC Mashinostroitelny Zavod facility of Rosatom nuclear fuel subsidiary company TVEL. The South African delegation saw the main production workshops and the latest procedures in the fabrication of nuclear fuel, for both Russian and Western designed NPPs.
“We previously heard that there exists a major production enterprise in Russia. So we had to come here and see all for ourselves,” Martins told Rosatom after this visit. “Today we have learned about your production, become certain of a high level of technology, which is implemented here. Technological and manufacturing standards, indeed, are at a high level. We are impressed.”
The next day was devoted to the Volgodonsk plant of AtomEnergoMash (AEM – Rosatom’s engineering division) and to the Rostov NPP site. At the AEM plant, the South Africans visited the areas where NPP equipment, reactor vessels and PGV-1000M steam generators are manufactured. They also inspected the thermopress site.
The Rostov NPP has two operational reactors (units one and two) and two more (units three and four) under construction. World Nuclear News reports that unit three should be finished next year and unit four in 2016. Rosatom stated in its press release that Minister Martins and his colleagues were informed about the group’s production system, especially its “Multi-D” NPP field engineering and project management approach.
On November 15, the South Africans visited the National Research Nuclear University and the Kurchatov Institute national research centre. All these visits took place within the framework of the Russian/South African agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
“Today, Rosatom’s possibilities in NPP construction are attracting more and more [the] attention of foreign countries,” affirmed Rosatom International Business director Nikolai Drozdov. “The visit of the South African delegation to the enterprises of [the] Russian nuclear industry clearly demonstrates to our South African colleagues the modern technologies and opportunities for effective collaboration.”