Citing unnamed sources, South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper reported Friday that the country is preparing to solicit bids to build and possibly operate six new reactors.
The paper reported the estimated value of the contract, which would also include a range of fuel-cycle services, at 1 trillion rand, the equivalent of $125 billion dollars. The country’s energy department submitted the six-reactor proposal to the cabinet last month, but the newspaper’s report offers the first suggestion as to its potential value.
Bidders are likely to include Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse, Korea Electric Power Co. and Russia’s Rosatom. France-based Areva and China’s Guangdong Nuclear Power Group may submit a joint bid, the paper reported. Areva, which built South Africa’s existing power reactors at Koeberg, has continued to lobby South African government and businesses in recent years after it bid on a nuclear project in 2008 that failed to materialize following a political transition. Meanwhile, China recently surpassed the U.S. as South Africa’s largest trading partner.
South Africa’s energy minister said earlier that the country will begin accepting bids next year. Government plans call for 9,600 megawatts of new generation from the reactors, and the Mail and Guardian reported they will be built at Koeberg, Bantamsklip and Thyspunt.