South Africa reports reactor vendor progress

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

South Africa "continues to make significant progress" in its engagements with various prospective nuclear vendor countries, according to a statement from President Jacob Zuma's office today.

This program is premised on the Nuclear Energy Policy of 2008, the Nuclear Energy Act 46 of 1999 and the Integrated Resource Plan, (IRP) adopted in 2011.

"Similarly, the National Development Plan enjoins us to do thorough investigations on various aspects of the nuclear power generation program before a procurement decision is taken. These policy prescripts are meant to add 9600 megawatts of electricity to the national electricity grid and ensure that we keep the lights on in a sustainable manner," Zuma said.

The government has recently held consultations with a number of nuclear vendor countries, including the USA, South Korea, Russia, France, Japan and China.

"These are the countries that have Pressurized Water Reactor nuclear technology, similar to Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant, situated in the Western Cape. South Africa has been safely using this technology for the past 30 years," Zuma said.

As part of the pre-procurement phase and preparation for the roll out of the nuclear new build program, the government has entered into several negotiations with vendor countries and has recently signed intergovernmental framework agreements with Russia, France and China. South Africa has also signed agreements with the USA and South Korea.

"These agreements set out potential frameworks of cooperation that each country foresees where or how they can participate in South Africa's new nuclear build program. They also mark the initiation of the preparatory stage for the procurement process that will be undertaken in line with country’s legislation and policies," Zuma said.

Parallel to this work and as part of the preparatory phase, the government has successfully concluded the "nuclear vendor parade workshops" with delegations from these countries between October and November.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News