Areva South Africa was expecting that a decision by the government to build a nuclear plant would be taken this year, said chairman Mohamed Madhi.
"Within government, at ministerial level, a decision is going to be made or discussed in one way or another. We expect it to be within months," he said.
Madhi said the nuclear programme would not be a cost burden to the government as the costs would be borne by the end users.
"South Africa has invested heavily in coal-fired power stations and there is a need to diversify its sources of power. It should also be remembered that the costs of producing power from coal and nuclear are similar," he said.
Madhi said it was important for South Africa to move swiftly into the programme because there were other countries, including India, China and Brazil that were lining up to become nuclear energy exporters.
"But South Africa still has a better chance to exploit the opportunities because it has the skills," the chairman said.
He said the project could create about 400 000 jobs that would remain the country's economic property.
"These are not the usual unskilled jobs, but it will consist of highly trained people in high growth areas," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Kelvin Kemm, the chief executive of business strategy consultants Stratek.
"Nuclear energy is not an option, it is a necessity," he said. He added that South Africa had been an early adopter of nuclear technology, and that the country possessed all the necessary skills.
"We are not newcomers to this (field); we will be doing what we know. We have the skills and we have the capacity," Kemm said.
Kemm said South Africa supplied about 25 percent of the world's nuclear medicine through the nuclear reactor in Pelindaba, nearPretoria.
"South Africa is a nuclear country every day, every minute. We provide medical isotopes to the world and every two minutes a patient benefits from it," he said.
He said the problem was that some anti-nuclear organisations had disseminated "science fiction" about nuclear technology and there was a need to clarify the facts.
"Take, for example, Koeberg (which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year). There has never been a nuclear incident at that plant. The nuclear industry has a huge history of being responsible," he said.
Kemm said that he was in favour of solar and wind-generated electricity as a complement to nuclear energy but not as a baseline.
Madhi said the input costs of implementing the programme, which had been bandied about in the media, were inaccurate but he declined to provide his own figures.
"We cannot disclose at this stage of the process because there are some confidentialities that need to be maintained," Madhi said.
"But (the cost) is the same as producing a megawatt from coal," he added. - Lucky Biyase