South Africa is waiting to divulge details about its pending nuclear project, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said Tuesday.
"To date no directive has been given on the issue of the nuclear program," she told reporters at the launch of energy month.
Currently, no price has been set. According to the review, the nuclear project "in the final stages of consideration before (a) financial proposal can be determined."
She added, however, that South Africa is very certain of its role regarding nuclear power. The country plans to increase its nuclear output to 9.6 gigawatts by 2029 – a timetable recently set by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in the Treasury's 2012 Budget Review.
Peters also did not acknowledge how many plants the country intends to build or the potential locations of the future plants, denying that one will be built at Thyspunt, a rocky stretch of coast in the Eastern Cape.
"An environmental impact assessment is currently under way in Thyspunt," she said. "We're not in a position to say that it has been decided."
The department did release that it intends for the project to acheive its first nuclear output in 2023 at 1600 megawatts.
After the government commits to the program, a feasibility program will be released. Then there will be an invitations for bids, followed by the commissioning of the plants.
Currently, the only nuclear power station in South Africa is the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, which is owned and operated by Eskom.