Edited by St Francis Chronicle: The South African Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, announced yesterday, 16 November, to the Press that South Africa is going back to its rightful place as a major player on the nuclear fuel cycle.
He told the press nuclear will play a crucial role in ensuring South Africa addresses the 600 million people on the continent who don’t have access to electricity, plus the industrialisation of the continent, and the the need for the country to process critical minerals to underpin the de-carbonisation agenda.
“It’s going to rely on clean base-load and nuclear is going to feature significantly, he said. “As a country we are not going to be left behind. We have built a body of knowledge over time.”
He related: “Once we’ve lifted this care and maintenance we are confident that engineers we invested in will come back and work with universities. We are going to build a pipeline of nuclear scientists who are going to participate in this build programme,” he said.
“We are confident that over a period of time, we will be a dominant and indispensable player on the nuclear side. The decision allows South Africa to participate in the nuclear fuel cycle which will have both domestic and commercial opportunities.”
Minister Ramokgopa also announced to the Press that the decision by Cabinet to lift the state of care maintenance of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) will place the country back to its’ “rightful place’ at the forefront of nuclear technology. “It means we can reopen the fuel development laboratories to undertake research and development.
He said there are also commercial opportunities. There is more than over 80% of Small Modular Reactors (SMRS) that are at differing stages of development.
He said there is only one country that is a supplier of this fuel. “Globally, with the exponential rise of SMRs and the introduction of the work we are doing, we are going to be another player in that space,” Ramokgopa further revealed.
Last month he released the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025 which includes plans to install some 5200 megawatts of new nuclear capacity in South Africa.
The Minister also spoke about the selection of Duynefontein as one of the locations for South Africa’s new nuclear build. “On the IRP we want additional 5.2GW of nuclear generation capacity.
Ramokgopa said a major decision was taken by the Department of Forestry and Environment (DFFE) to grant the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Dunefontein site, adjacent to Koeberg, that was identified for the new nuclear build.
“We can deploy, when we initiate this new build, at least 2400MW of nuclear energy. We are also able to demonstrate that now there’s a site that is fully permitted for us to able to roll out the nuclear build programme,” he said.
He added that other sites are also being explored in the Eastern Cape.
In related news, according to a ‘Notice’ in the business press today Eskom Holdings SOC Limited (Eskom) proposes the establishment of a Nuclear Power
Plant (NPP) generating up to 5200 MW, with associated infrastructure, at either Thyspunt
in the Kouga Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province, or, Bantamsklip in the
Overstrand Local Municipality of the Western Cape Province, which requires an
Environmental Authorisation (EA) application.
Two virtual public meetings will be held to introduce the public to the proposed NPP to be held on 1 and 2 December this year.
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