Nuclear power no more expensive than other energy

Koeberg nuclear power plant. Photo: Peter Titmuss 123rf.com

“Nuclear energy is certainly not any more expensive than any other energy source. The large 9600MW nuclear programme has created an impression of a single expensive mega-project, when in fact the purpose of the fleet approach was to drive down costs over time and increase the learning rate,” explains nuclear expert Dr Anthonie Cilliers.

This should be broken up into smaller chunks, for example, should two nuclear reactors be added to the current plant at Koeberg, the cost would be no more than the guarantees already provided by Treasury for the current independent power producer programme (IPP), whilst two nuclear reactors would produce more units of electricity per year (and more reliably) than the units on the IPP programme.

“I agree that South Africa’s fiscus is constrained at the moment, I believe this will change and when it does we need to be prepared. If we cannot afford nuclear new build we cannot afford any new build. We also have to remember that the new Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) has not been gazetted and with an outdated IRP, I find the approval of any energy projects (including nuclear) irrational.”

We need to replace coal with nuclear

“In South Africa, the common belief is that we have excess electricity that we do not need nuclear energy in the short term. This is a slight misnomer as the excess electricity stems from the recent high prices which in turn are constraining our economic growth.

“The reality is that South Africa needs more electricity at an affordable cost to support economic growth – for this an intervention by government is required. We also tend to forget that many of our coal stations are reaching end of life within the next 10 years, we are already seeing the operation and maintenance cost of these plants rising. We need to plan to replace these coal plants with nuclear plants, we have no other option.

“Specialists in South Africa are currently working on a project to determine the macro-economic impact of nuclear build programmes on a country in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency and 15 other countries. What we are seeing is that the contribution to the GDP from these projects (during construction and operation) is staggering as it becomes an enabler of economic growth and job creation, directly, indirectly and inducing new jobs in other sectors – far more than industries that rely heavily on import and local assembly.”