President Jacob Zuma stated in the 2015 State of the Nation Address that South Africa will have nuclear power by 2023 – this has now been postponed.
He stated that this will be in time for the retirement of coal-fired power owned by Eskom.
He continued to say that the South African government was looking at the procurement of some 9, 600MW of nuclear power supply through inter-governmental agreements signed with the United States, South Korea, Russia, France and China.
Knox Msebenzi, Managing Director of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa) at the Second Nuclear Industry Congress Africa 2015 said “The first plant was due in 2023, but it’s been very delayed. Part of the delay has to do with politics. The latest date is 2025, but there may be other delays.”
Msebenzi highlighted two issues that a country embarking on gaining nuclear energy had to combat: funding and human resources.
He dismissed the former as it is a government responsibility and with regards to the latter he stated that the government is working closely with the nuclear industry for human resource development. He mentions, however, that South Africa will have a chance to look at a different range of technologies and see which have worked elsewhere and weigh-up the successes and failures.
He adds that South Africa will be likely to not have the first-of-a-kind technology but rather the best-of-its-kind technology.
