JOHANNESBURG: South Africa is well equipped to have nuclear power stations and has a nuclear safety culture, with Koeberg having operated safely for more than 32 years, Eskom said yesterday.
The performance of the Koeberg power station has also consistently been one of the strongest within the Eskom fleet of power stations, the parastatal said.
“It is also the cheapest energy provider in SA's fleet. Nuclear does require high initial capital expenditure for construction but, operationally, nuclear offers one of the cheapest sources of electricity, rendering it more favourable than any fossil power generation.
“Furthermore, Eskom has learnt significant lessons from its current new build programme that it can put to good use in the nuclear programme and to reduce the risk of schedule delays and cost overruns. It will also leverage its current relationships to ensure maximum delivery of socio- economic impacts of the nuclear build programme.”
Eskom said about two-thirds of the world's population lived in countries where nuclear power plants were an integral part of electricity production and industrial infrastructures.
Around the world, scientists in more than 50 countries used nearly 300 research reactors to investigate nuclear technologies or to produce radioisotopes for medical diagnosis, cancer therapy, insect eradication, domestic application, and X-rays for preserving fresh produce.
Nuclear energy currently provided about 11 percent of the world's electricity and through Koeberg nuclear power station near Cape Town it powered most of the Western Cape and supplied about 4.4 percent of South Africa's total electricity needs since 1984.
“Most power stations use the same principles to generate electricity, with the only difference being the source of energy used to rotate the shaft of the generator.
"In thermal power stations, it's the steam produced by heat generated either by burning a fossil fuel, through nuclear fission, or through solar energy.
“Nuclear energy comes from the process of splitting the nucleus of an atom of uranium-235, releasing energy in the form of heat and radiation, the nuclear fission process.
“The fuel used in a nuclear power station is uranium. Pure uranium is a silvery, shiny, hard, heavy metal. South Africa also possesses sizeable uranium reserves and has an extensive uranium mining industry, making it one of the important producers of uranium in the world. Uranium production in South Africa is a by-product of gold and copper mining,” Eskom said.
Advantages of using nuclear as a source of energy were that nuclear power was safe and generating electricity from nuclear power did not lead to carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases that could damage the environment. In addition, the process produced small volumes of waste to dispose of.
Some people objected to nuclear power stations because of a fear of radiation. It was worth noting that radiation started decreasing immediately after the fission reaction had stopped and within about 10 years would have decreased by more than 95 percent.
Others thought that a nuclear power station would explode like a nuclear bomb. However, due to the very low content of fissionable material in the fuel, a nuclear explosion was impossible, Eskom said.