Once rejected, the second time could be a charm for France as a new energy deal could signal a future nuclear pact. South Africa’s Energy Minister and French counterpart signed a bilateral agreement for an energy roadmap.
In addition, the Nuclear Energy Corp. of South Africa (Necsa) signed a LoI with French energy giant Areva to expand cooperation on nuclear fuel and other technologies. However, this LoI does not mean that South Africa will realize its nuclear ambitions anytime soon as the same deal was signed between Necsa and Areva in 2008. That deal had Areva over the engineering and nuclear skills development in the African nation. The French nuclear power put in a bid early in 2008 to supply Generation III reactor designs, but the $9 billion price tag had South Africa running away.
South Africa is releasing its IRP2010 in April, but includes the country adopting a nuclear energy strategy of 9.6 GW with six 1,600 MW nuclear power stations coming online in 2023. Nuclear energy currently supplies 1,800 MW or 6% of the country’s power. Nuclear power plants generally take around 10 years to complete from construction so ground would need to be broken for the projects no later than 2013 in order for the projects to come online by 2023. If the six additional nuclear power plants are complete by the proposed time, then 9.6 GW will be added to the country’s energy mix with nuclear energy totaling 11.4 GW.
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