Cape Town - South African power utility
Eskom will this week invite bids to build six nuclear
reactors in the government's push to increase nuclear capacity,
its acting CEO said on Tuesday, despite the concerns of campaign
groups and economists.
South Africa, which has the continent's only nuclear power
station, has earmarked nuclear expansion as the centrepiece of a
plan to increase power generation to ease the country's reliance
on an ageing fleet of coal-fired plants and has asked Eskom to
procure an additional 9,600 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
However, the move is being opposed by environmental and
clean-energy groups, while economists have said that South
Africa cannot afford to build new nuclear plants.
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Eskom's Matshela Koko, speaking to reporters in Cape Town on
the sidelines of a court case in which environmental and
clean-energy campaigners are challenging the government's
decision, said the nuclear regulator's approval of the plan on
Dec. 8 meant the company could proceed with the tender.
Koko took the helm at Eskom at the start of December
following the resignation of Brian Molefe, who resigned after
being implicated in allegations of influence peddling in a
report by an anti-graft watchdog. Molefe has denied any
wrongdoing.