State set to call for nuclear bidders
THE government has made a firm commitment to start the procurement process for the construction of Africa’s second fleet of nuclear power stations by the end of March, putting billions of rand in nuclear electricity infrastructure back into contention, nearly four years after it was first mooted.
Department of Energy officials said yesterday that the decision to call for bidders to build the plants would come “before the end of the financial year,” and that the government would implement this phase of its infrastructure plan. Deputy director-general responsible for nuclear planning Zizamele Mbambo said the decision would come before the end of March.
THE government has made a firm commitment to start the procurement process for the construction of Africa’s second fleet of nuclear power stations by the end of March, putting billions of rand in nuclear electricity infrastructure back into contention nearly four years after it was first mooted.
Energy department officials said at a media briefing in Pretoria yesterday that the decision to call for bidders to build the plants would come “before the end of the financial year,” and that the government was going ahead with the implementation of this phase of the country’s infrastructure plan.
“We are implementing the nuclear strategy,” said Zizamele Mbambo, the deputy director-general responsible for nuclear planning at the department. He said the decision will come before the end of March.
Once a competitive bidding programme for the construction of the fleet of stations officially starts, it may take about six years for the first generating unit to start producing power.
International energy companies including France’s Areva and Russia’s Rosatom, as well as Eskom and Chinese companies, have been queuing for the opportunity for the past four years, when the idea of more nuclear stations was first mooted and then temporarily shelved.
In June at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Atomexpo conference on the future of nuclear energy, held in St Petersburg in Russia, various multinationals including Rosatom said they wanted to apply to SA’s nuclear programme but were waiting for procurement processes to begin.
Kirill Komarov, deputy directorgeneral of Rosatom, said in June that the Russian state energy agency was waiting for SA to put out tenders for a nuclear programme.
“I think we have made it very clear that we are interested in beginning a relationship with SA that sees an overhaul of their nuclear industry. We are now waiting for a decision from the South African government as to how to move forward,” he said.
According to the energy department’s integrated resource plan, SA’s electricity infrastructure development blueprint for the next 20 years, a total 9,600MW of power must be generated from nuclear sources in the years to 2029.
It is anticipated that the first 1,600MW unit will start producing electricity by 2023, according to the integrated resource plan.
The country is home to the continent’s only nuclear power station, the 1,800MW station at Koeberg in the Western Cape. It is estimated the new power station will cost as much as R1-trillion to build.
With SA adopting a fleet approach to the nuclear-build programme, this will see the country ordering a number of nuclear power plants and not one at a time.
Mr Mbambo said the government was busy addressing supporting aspects of the nuclear strategy, which include decisions on the amount of local input into the building of the station, or localisation, and the procurement of the nuclear fuel to power the station.
“These issues are being addressed as part of the phased decision-making process on the nuclear build,” said Mr Mbambo.
Energy Minister Ben Martins yesterday said the government was doing a lot of work in addressing concerns around nuclear. “We are reaching out to members of the public; to demystify the issues around nuclear and to tell the communities and stakeholders about the benefits of the nuclear station,” he said in his first public address since he was appointed to head the portfolio three months ago.
Critics of the programme have pointed at the high costs as well as the environmental risks associated with nuclear. Environmental activists say the declining costs and much faster turnaround times of building power stations from renewable sources like hydropower, wind and solar panels, offer better opportunities than nuclear and coal-fired power stations.
If the government goes ahead with its nuclear project, it will be the most expensive investment programme in the history of the nation, according to Lance Greyling, the Democratic Alliance’s shadow minister for energy.