The Southern Africa Radiation Protection Association (Sarpa) has expressed its full support for the South African government’s plan to soon start a process to develop 2 500 MW of new nuclear power. This plan was stated by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe during a briefing of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy on May 7.

“As Sarpa we believe the announcement could not have come at a better time than now as the country has in recent time[s] witnessed unending energy supply challenges leading to load shedding which affected business operations and households alike,” stated the association. It pointed out that the country had been suffering from a shortage of electricity since 2007. 

Currently, the country obtained 77% of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, 18% from renewable energy, and 5% from the Koeberg nuclear power plant (NPP). But, apart from the new Medupi and Kusile plants, the country’s coal-fired power stations were ageing and reaching the end of their operational lives.

“It therefore follows that procurement and subsequent construction of nuclear power plants will ensure the security of energy supply from the year 2030 and beyond,” affirmed Sarpa. “We acknowledge and embrace the principle of the energy mix ‘diversification’ provision in the IRP2019 [Integrated Resource Plan 2019]; and believe nuclear power will provide a reliable baseload electricity supply with much less carbon footprint compared to coal-fired power plants. Renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind are equally important, but their intermittent nature and storage limitations hinder large scale baseload power production from these sources.”

The association also pointed to the jobs that the construction of new NPPs would create. Such jobs would not only be within the nuclear sector but also in the various support sectors. This would, in turn, boost the economy. The Koeberg NPP and the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation’s SAFARI-1 research reactor already sustained thousands of jobs between them.

Sarpa also stressed that the South African nuclear sector had an excellent safety record. SAFARI-1 had been operating since 1965, while Koeberg’s first reactor (Unit 1) had started operating in 1984, with the second reactor (Unit 2) following suit in 1985. None of these three reactors had ever suffered from a nuclear accident.

The country also had an established record of safely handing nuclear waste, with the necessary procedures and facilities. “Furthermore South Africa has a well-established National Nuclear Regulator which is a national authority responsible for exercising regulatory control over the safety of nuclear installations, radioactive waste, irradiated nuclear fuel, and the mining and processing of radioactive ores and minerals,” observed the association.