CANE - Coalition Against Nuclear Energy South Africa

South Africa could generate “substantial profits” from uranium enrichment, as a global shortage in uranium conversion, enrichment and nuclear fuel production capacity was imminent, said National Energy Corporation (Necsa) CEO Rob Adam.

Adam said South Africa could resolve between a third and a tenth of a coming global shortfall in conversion and enrichment capacity and that it could also deal with a part of the coming global shortfall in fuel production capacity.

South Africa had developed and used facilities for the conversion and enrichment of uranium in the past and he noted that, while these had been dismantled, the expertise still existed locally.

Adam said that the country could enrich uranium at about half the price of the current spot price for nuclear fuel.

Enrichment accounts for about 36% of the costs of nuclear fuel and about 5% of the total cost of the nuclear electricity.

South Africa could produce nuclear fuel at a cost of about R1 000/kg, the current spot price is R1 730/kg and Adam explained that the country could produce uranium hexafluoride - a compound used in the enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons - at a rough estimate of between R400 and R500 a separate work unit (SWU). The current spot price, which was inflated by concerns about the coming shortage, is R989 a SWU. (Enrichment is measured by SWUs, which refers to the amount of uranium processed and the degree to which it is enriched.)

Moreover, the amount of nuclear fuel that could be made from South Africa’s uranium was set to rise from the current 110 t/y to 840 t/y in 2030, he said. These would be used in local nuclear power stations as well as to supply the needs of countries abroad.

This comes at a time when South Africa is investing in building its nuclear capacity. In his latest State of the Nation address, President Thabo Mbeki said that government would expedite its work to ensure “greater reliance on nuclear power generation, natural gas and the various forms of renewable sources of energy”.

Currently, Koeberg power station is South Africa’s only nuclear plant, but Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin announced this week that government had approved a second nuclear plant.