Cape Town - The state’s push for eight to 10 new nuclear power stations with a price tag of more than R1 trillion would bankrupt the government and Eskom, according to the environmental activist group Earthlife Africa.
Project co-ordinator Tristen Taylor said at a time when Eskom and the government were experiencing “profound governance and financial failures”, the continued push for expensive and uncertain nuclear technology was unwise.
The cost would be made even more expensive because of declining credit ratings, and would not help the current power crisis.
“The oddity of the entire nuclear programme is sharpened when compared to the successful Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which is bringing power to the grid now, on time and on budget. Eskom and the state should back what works and stop wasting our time and money on nuclear power,” Taylor said.
He was reacting to a Department of Energy statement this week that the government was pushing ahead with its plan to build another 9 600MW of nuclear power, and had held negotiations and signed framework agreements with Russia, France, China, South Korea and the US – countries which sell pressurised water nuclear reactor technology. These agreements marked the start of the nuclear procurement process.
These countries had held workshops where they displayed their technology and negotiated “how they planned to meet South Africa’s needs for the nuclear build programme”.
“Vendor parade workshops were held with countries who chose to and were ready to engage in this manner, having signed the Intergovernmental Framework Agreement. The conclusion of this marks a significant milestone in the government pre-procurement phase for the roll-out of the nuclear new build programme,” the Energy Department said.
The nuclear programme was premised on the country’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), adopted in 2011.
However, Taylor said the IRP was an outdated energy plan and the Energy Department was obliged to publish a new plan. Instead it was pushing ahead with the nuclear programme based on the outdated plan, and in the absence of appropriate energy and financial modelling.
Taylor said: “Holding closed-door meetings with elements of the nuclear industry is hardly the open, cost-effective, transparent and fair procurement process demanded by the constitution.
“It appears that personal wills inside the state and Eskom are triumphing over the general will of the constitution, making a mockery of our democratic institutions and values.”
Cape Times