Johannesburg - South Africa signed a partnership agreement with Russia’s state-owned nuclear company that will see Rosatom build reactors in Africa’s second-biggest economy.
The agreement lays the foundation for a large-scale nuclear power-plant procurement and development program using Russian VVER reactors with total installed capacity of 9,600 megawatts, or as many as eight nuclear units, Rosatom and the South African government said in an e-mailed statement today.
The cooperation will result in orders worth at least $10 billion (R111 billion) from local industrial companies, Rosatom Director General Sergei Kirienko said in the statement.
South Africa’s integrated resources plan envisions 9,600 megawatts of nuclear energy being added to the national grid to help reduce reliance on coal, which state-owned utility Eskom uses to generate 80 percent of the country’s electricity.
Eskom is struggling to meet demand for power in the country.
“This agreement opens up the door for South Africa to access Russian technologies, funding, infrastructure, and provides a proper and solid platform for future extensive collaboration,” South African Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said in the statement.
It will allow the country to implement its plan to create more nuclear capacity by 2030, she said. - Bloomberg News