Erwin’s plans to build reactors everywhere…
ENERGY IN AFRICA
South Africa presses the nuclear button
Tom Nevin
Thu, 01 Mar 2007
The government has not confirmed or denied speculation that its medium-term plan includes a series of nuclear energy generators in the 1 500MW to 1 800MW range, in the northern provinces of Limpopo and Northern Cape and others in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. Public Affairs Minister Alec Erwin has, however, conceded that nuclear energy will be a central plank in the government’s energy strategy, while identifying uranium as a strategic mineral to secure nuclear energy supply.
The government is said to be considering a wide-ranging nuclear energy programme that could see a string of five atom-powered electricity generators scattered throughout the country.
In light of its nuclear expansion, South Africa’s reserves of uranium — a nuclear fuel derivative — was declared a strategic mineral. It is a mineral South Africa has in abundance, and which the country is eager to add value to as it builds its nuclear energy capacity.
As a strategic mineral, the government will have more controls over uranium’s production and exportation to ensure that South Africa has adequate reserves of the mineral in years to come. “We can’t export uranium when we want to embark on a nuclear programme,” says Minerals and Energy Minister Bulelwa Sonjica. “We want to ensure that all the time, when we need it, we have reserves in store. There will be limitations on the export of uranium. We’ll be managing it very carefully.”
Eskom is the largest single supplier of electricity in Africa, answering to about 63 per cent of the continent’s power needs. It is the eleventh-largest electricity utility in the world and supplies about 95 per cent of the electricity consumed in South Africa.
