SA moving towards nuclear energy says Minister (01 August 2011)

01 August, 2011 14:33
Janice Roberts,

South Africa is moving towards nuclear energy, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba has said.

He was addressing a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in SA in Johannesburg.

Gigaba explained that SA would become more reliable upon renewables and nuclear energy while reducing coal generation.

"Some say South Arica needs to completely abandon the use of coal for power generation. But it would be unwise to do so."

Coal made up over 90% of the total electricity generating capacity in South Africa. However, concern over coal prices and the exhausting of reserves as well as global warming had been cause for concern for the SA government.

"We have significantly reduced - in terms of our plans - our coal generation but we can't just take an abrupt decision that we're not going to use coal," the minister said.

However, SA was firmly on the road to nuclear generation - which at present only accounted for around 6% of electricity generated in the country.

The country has only one nuclear power station in the Western Cape constructed during the eighties.

"The minister of energy has been quite vociferous in saying that we can't simply make a move towards nuclear generation without fully absorbing lessons of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.

"While there is a risk that there might be delays in introducing nuclear capacity, rather have these delays than a disaster of life threatening proportions."

Nuclear generation would be conducted by the state the minister added, as it was the duty of the state "to ensure that capacity remained a critical aspect in the hands of the state".

Gigaba said 3.7 million people still needed electricity.

"Once there are sufficient resources available, the cabinet is committed to having these resources mobilised to scale up the electrification programme of the whole country."

The minister added that it could take up to twenty years for SA to fully supply electricity to these 3.7 million people.

"But we don't think we can wait that long ... and if we do, then new challenges would have emerged."

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