South Africa: Nuclear Power Coming Back on the Boil in Country

As one energy analyst has observed, Dipuo Peters’s maiden budget vote speech as energy minister this week has shown that nuclear power is still very much on the government’s front burner.

Since Eskom’s announcement in December last year that it had put on hold building a new nuclear power station, the government has been at pains to insist that it wants to proceed with the nuclear programme. But one could not blame those who felt that there would at least be a lull period.
“I thought it would take another two to three years before we see something.

“But one thing one can draw from the minister’s speech is that nuclear is back on the agenda,” Frost & Sullivan energy analyst Cornelis van der Waal says.

Peters said the government planned to expand the use of nuclear energy for electricity generation. “Our work in this regard will include intensified engagement within the government system and outside, in order to ensure that we take emphatic decisions with regard to Eskom’s nuclear build programme.”

Nuclear companies are waiting eagerly for signals on the nature and form of the government approach . One thing is certain — there is going to be a departure from the commercial bidding process that saw energy groups Westinghouse Electric and Areva competing for the contract .

AllAfrica