The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) on Wednesday announced its support of the recent National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) decision to approve the Section 34 (of the Electricity Regulation Act) Determination for 2 500 MW of new nuclear energy. Necsa described this approval by Nersa as “a step in the right direction”, to ensure that nuclear energy would continue to be part of the country’s energy mix (in line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2020).

“The approval of the 2 500 MW comes at a critical time when the South Africa economy needs resuscitation following the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic,” affirmed Necsa board chairperson Dave Nicholls. “This will play a role in job creation which will assist in the dire state of unemployment in the country.”

The Nersa approval followed public hearings, undertaken in January. This allowed the regulator to consider a wide range of opinions, Necsa pointed out in its statement.

The State-owned nuclear entity, which owns and operates the SAFARI-1 research reactor, also noted that government policy was to build new nuclear power plants (NPPs) “on a scale and pace the country can afford”. Being the State entity most familiar with the Nuclear Energy Act, Necsa would provide the government with all the support required to ensure that a new nuclear acquisition process met all the requirements and ran smoothly.

(South Africa’s current nuclear energy capacity is 1 940 MW, provided by the two reactors of the Koeberg NPP, located near Cape Town. Koeberg is owned and operated by State-owned national electricity utility Eskom.)

“If South Africa builds a second nuclear energy power station then it will continue to be in the lead in Africa, with countries such as Egypt and Nigeria following suit,” he added. So a new NPP build programme would benefit the entire continent.

(In fact, Egypt’s El-Dabaa NPP project is already underway, non-nuclear site infrastructure construction having started last year, and approval for the manufacture of long-lead components of the reactor and its associated systems having been given in July. The formal request for construction of the first two units of the NPP was submitted to Egypt’s Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority at the beginning of July. Construction will start once approval is granted. El-Dabaa will have four Russian AES-2006 reactors which will give a total electricity output of 1 194 MW.)