Johannesburg - The government planned to issue a request for proposals by the end of the month to add 9 600 megawatts of nuclear power to the national grid, Department of Energy director-general Thabane Zulu announced yesterday.
Zulu said discussions were ongoing with the Treasury about the costs of the fleet of nuclear plants, adding that issuing the request for proposals was a critical milestone for the nuclear programme and responses would provide an indication of a possible funding model.
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Zulu said: “We want to make sure that the process plan is thorough, effective and properly implemented.”
Cabinet’s decision
Gaopalelwe Santswere, the chairman of the SA Young Nuclear Professionals Society, said yesterday that responses to the request for proposals would give an indication of whether the country could afford the programme.
“The only way to know if the country can afford the programme is by testing the market. When the proposals come back we can decide if it is affordable,” Santswere said.
He added that issuing the request for proposals in the middle of unfavourable economic conditions was not necessarily a bad thing.
“How long are we going to wait? The market is also experiencing the crunch. People are also looking for business. So we may actually end up with a good deal,” he said.
The request for proposals follows the cabinet’s decision in December to give the department the green light to issue a request for proposal for the procurement programme.
Although the cost of the programme remains unknown, Zulu said the final funding model would depend on the response of the market to the request for proposal.
He said a decision to proceed with the nuclear programme would take place after the completion of the request for proposals process.
Rosatom and Areva are regarded as frontrunners. Areva declined to comment.
Hartmut Winkler, a physics professor at the University of Johannesburg, said: “I find this urgency in getting this process under way difficult to reconcile with the commitment made by the president in his State of the Nation Address that South Africa would only develop nuclear power plants on a scale and pace that the country can afford.”
Winkler also questioned the affordability of the programme given the current unfavourable economic conditions.
“Furthermore, how does one request proposals if the ‘scale’ of the project is still to be determined? I would like to see a clear nuclear roadmap, with detailed technical specifications, site maps, projected costs and timeframes, with up-to-date projections of electricity demand and comparative costs of alternative power generation options,” he said.
* Additional reporting by Reuters
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