ENERGY
Prospects of nuclear in SA’s energy mix Although the dream of South Africa becoming an international player in the area of nuclear energy has not yet materialised, the countr y still has the only nuclear-driven power station on the continent. Sadly, no new nuclear plants before 2030 have been listed as electricity generating technologies in the IRP 2019. By Knox Msebenzi*
S
outh Africa’s Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), the only nuclear power plant on the continent, opened in 1984 and has since provided electricity reliably and consistently. In around 2007, Eskom got permission to have as much as 20 GW of new nuclear power installed. The approach adopted by government was not so much to procure nuclear power plants, but to build a capability by localising the industr y in an aggressive way. This is when the Nuclear Industr y Association of South Africa (NIASA) was formed. The vision was that, like South Korea, South Africa would become a major player in the nuclear supply chain all over the world and perhaps even an exporter of the technology in its own right. This dream was on the brink of materialising with the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), when a political decision to terminate the programme was taken.
new source of power, largely embraced by the international community riding the wave of climate change and other environmental considerations of sustainability. The energy mix debate in South Africa attracted a lot interest from international
and local non-governmental and civic organisations, whose thrust was to lump nuclear technology with coal as anathema to the environment and therefore argue that nuclear technology be excluded. Nuclear power and renewable energy should not be seen as competitors, but as complementar y. All the BRICS countries are seriously pursuing both nuclear and RE.
Anti-nuclear sentiment The environmental argument augmented with the
was
Nuclear power in the IRP The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) of 2010–2030 made provision for a reduced amount of nearly 10 GW, owing mainly to the entrance of renewable energy (RE) as a
IMIESA May 2020
55
