We're reviewing nuclear plans – Energy Minister

South Africa will review its nuclear plans as part of its response to the economic recession, says Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi. South Africa is planning to build 9 600MW of nuclear capacity, a project that could be one of the world’s biggest nuclear contracts in decades, notes a Business Day report. Kubayi, leading a delegation at a nuclear conference in Moscow, said she was a member of a Cabinet committee that was drawing up responses to the recession and that the committee would study the nuclear plan. ‘We will do the nuclear project at a scale and pace that we can afford. So we will look at that completely; if we need to review the scale, we have obviously to go back,’ the Minister said. In response to a question on the company that South Africa could choose to build new nuclear reactors, Kubayi said it was important to go for ‘the most experienced people who have a track record’. Russian state company Rosatom is a contender to build the reactors and has been talking up its chances of winning the contract, given the delays and cost overruns at French competitor Areva and Japanese-owned Westinghouse, says the report. Kubayi said that it was too early to give an exact date on when the procurement process for the project could restart and that South Africa was reviewing intergovernmental agreements with many countries following the High Court ruling against the Russian nuclear pact. ‘In a few weeks, we should be able to give an indication (of the procurement restart date), once the internal Cabinet processes have been concluded,’ Kubayi said.

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