The managing director of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa) said Thursday that this week's High Court ruling that derailed the country' nuclear ambitions was based on procurement procedures and was not, therefore, an ultimatum about nuclear power in South Africa.
The country already has nuclear power in the form of two reactor that generate about 5 percent of the country's electricity. As such, “we have a solid foundation to base the new proposed build program,” said Managing Director Knox Msebenzi, as quoted by the World Nuclear Association.
The government has plans to increase nuclear power to 23 percent of the country's power generation mix with the addition of 9600 MWe of new nuclear capacity. The Western Cape High Court, however, ruled that two procurement arrangements that moved the nuclear expansion forward were unconstitutional. The court also said international cooperation agreements involving the United States, Russia and South Korea were not legal and were to be set aside.
One of the missteps the court took exception to involved the Department of Energy's decision to hand over to the utility Eskom the task of awarding the contracts for the new power plants. Eskom was to send out requests for proposals last September, but the RFPs were never sent out, the WNA reported.
Meanwhile, a Department of Energy reaction to the ruling included a reminder that no contract for any nuclear build projects have been signed. “The Department reiterates that the South African government has not entered into any deal or signed any contract for the procurement of nuclear power,” the department said in a statement.