South Africa’s Department of Energy (DoE) denied on Wednesday that it had signed a deal to procure eight VVER nuclear reactors from Rosatom, of Russia, stating that the agreement signed in Vienna on September 22 merely formed part of preparations for a procurement process, which was yet to be launched.

No firm date was provided for the launch of the procurement, but an assurance was given that it would not move ahead before the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) had been updated.

The current IRP, which was published in 2011 and outlines the introduction of 9 600 MW of new nuclear capacity by 2030, is considered to be out of date. A draft IRP update suggested that the introduction of new nuclear capacity either be postponed, owing to lower than expected demand, or even be abandoned if specific cost thresholds cannot be met.

Acting DoE director-general Dr Wolsey Barnard also indicated at a briefing that similar intergovernmental agreements would be signed with other nuclear-vendor countries in the coming months, noting that an agreement with France should be concluded in October. It had already concluded an agreement with South Korea in 2013.

Besides Russia, France and South Korea, it was expected that South Africa would seek to conclude agreements with China, Japan and the US during the preparatory phase, which the DoE hoped to wrap up by year-end.

The content of the contentious agreement with the Russian Federation and Rosatom would, however, not be released until it had been endorsed by Cabinet for consideration by Parliament.

Barnard indicated that the document contained proprietary information that had been shared “in confidence” and it would not be prudent to provide details before agreements had been signed with other countries.

Deputy director-general for nuclear Zizamele Mbambo gave an assurance, however, that any future procurement process would be in line with national legislation, as well as South Africa’s commitments to various international nuclear treaties.

He said the preparatory phase with vendor countries was necessary to enable government to make an informed decision about how best to proceed with a nuclear procurement programme, which could take on various models.

While Barnard stressed that the procurement would be "fair, competitive and cost effective”, Mbambo indicated that it might not take the form of an open tender. He suggested that government-to-government models were also being interrogated, as was a closed-tender model.

However, the final design had not been decided and Cabinet would make a decision on the preferred model, which would be driven by “national interest”.

The Energy Security Sub-Committee, which is chaired by President Jacob Zuma, was placing much emphasis on energy security, self-sufficiency, localisation, job creation, skills development and technology transfer.

Through the intergovernmental agreements, South Africa was looking to gauge how far the various vendor countries were prepared to go in delivering on these components.