‘Nuclear will remain part of future of SA’

DESPITE the Treasury’s concerns about the huge cost, the head of nuclear company Necsa is sticking to his guns that nuclear will be a major part of the solution to South Africa’s energy crisis.

At Pelindaba, near Pretoria, Necsa CEO Phumzile Tshelane slammed the R1-trillion projections made about the nuclear new build cost as a thumb-suck.

“The cost depends on the model South Africa chooses to follow.

“”Do we follow the Turkish model, which requires no commitment from the Turkish fiscus and is run as a business at a higher cost than, for instance, the Chinese model, where the state takes the full risk . . . or the UK model of target pricing, with state support only to a certain price level? Do we decide to make up the 9 600MW from eight equally sized reactors in different places, or place them all close to each other, which will impact site development costs? These, and other issues, need clarification before . . . cost estimates are possible.”

He denied that Russia had the inside track on the deal.

Nuclear’s role in the energy mix is imperative, he argued. “We don’t have a hydroelectric option. We lack the rivers. We do not know the extent of any possible gas reserves, so we need coal and nuclear to run a growing economy.

“Surely, we don’t want all our eggs in one basket. What if anything goes wrong on the coal front? Diversification is the answer,” Tshelane said.

Necsa, the custodian of South Africa’s nuclear skills base, has a huge interest in whether the new build happens and what form it takes. It will also be central to the localising any nuclearrelated technology to add to the skills base.

In March, however, the Sunday Times reported on Necsa’s cash-flow problems.

Tshelane said the problems had been resolved.