South Africa targets launching Gen III reactor tender in 2012 (22 September 2011)

South Africa’s Department of Energy is aiming to finalize a “nuclear energy implementation strategy” by the end of this year and “roll out the procurement process next year” for a Generation III reactor, according to Nuclear Energy
Corp. of South Africa CEO Rob Adam.

Adam told the World Nuclear Association symposium in London last week that South Africa continues to pursue plans to install just short of 10 GW of new reactor capacity by 2030.

South Africa’s government decided March 16 to go ahead with the energy strategy that included those plans, which had been approved by the Cabinet two days before the March 11 accident at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant in Japan.

Adam said that although South Africa does not have the same kind of earthquake risk as Japan, Fukushima “highlighted the importance of rigorous design and construction of nuclear power plants.”

He said Fukushima will have “consequences” for South Africa, both in choice of reactor technology and in requirements for siting and environmental impact assessment.

The accident has indicated that only Generation III designs with protection against beyond-design-basis accidents are acceptable, he said, and South Africa is “unlikely to backtrack on that.”

“We’re going for the best design,” he said.

Before the accident, the government had been considering a proposal from China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co., in partnership with EDF, to build plants based on Cgnpc’s CPR1000 PWR. China refers to that design as a Gen II+ reactor.

Adam said on the sidelines of the conference that the customer/owner of the South African nuclear plant project hasn’t yet been determined, although state-owned utility Eskom will be part of any customer consortium.

Eskom received bids from both Areva and Westinghouse in January 2008 for initial units in a then-planned fleet of up to 10 new reactors. But the company’s financial free-fall that year forced it to cancel the tender in December 2008.
Another South African official said Eskom, which operates two French-origin PWRs at Koeberg, is interested only in PWRs. But GE Hitachi Senior Vice President Danny Roderick said in an interview September 16 that his company has assurance from South African decision-makers that “the door is open” for GEH’s third-generation BWR technology.

State-owned Necsa was given the task two years ago of developing South Africa’s own nuclear industry. Adam outlined a goal of achieving 30% localization in terms of cost, and up to 40% localization in terms of technical capability,
for the planned new reactor fleet.

He said that in fuel cycle areas such as manufacture of nuclear fuel, enrichment and conversion services, South Africa would be able to service a fleet of 12 GW domestically “through partnerships.”

—Ann MacLachlan, London
www.platts.com
Volume 52 / Number 38 / September 22, 2011