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Nuclear body defends role of technology in SA’s energy future

17th January 2013

By: Terence Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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In response to a call made by Energy Intensive User Group (EIUG) chairperson Mike Rossouw for a review of South Africa’s nuclear programme, owing to the EIUG’s affordability concerns, the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa) has described nuclear energy as a competitive solution when compared with other baseload generation options.

Rossouw stressed that the EIUG was not opposed to nuclear as a technology option, but that it was concerned that the addition of 9 600 MW of new nuclear capacity by 2030 could crowd-out other opportunities that could be more flexible in responding to changing energy-market dynamics.

But Niasa CEO Ayanda Myoli argued that nuclear should not be considered more expensive than coal or gas, citing a joint study conducted by the International Energy Agency and the Nuclear Energy Agency that showed nuclear to be competitive with both baseload alternatives.

Entitled ‘Projected Costs of Generating Electricity’, the study showed that no single technology had a clear overall advantage globally, or regionally. Its findings were based on data gathered from 190 power plants in 21 countries, which included South Africa.

He said nuclear was relatively more capital intensive and, therefore, relatively more expensive to build, “but it is cheaper to operate over the life of the power plant mainly because nuclear fuel is cheap, and the life of nuclear plants is long”.

“Nuclear’s strength is its capability to deliver significant amounts of very low carbon baseload electricity at costs stable over time,” Myoli stated.

South Africa’s interest in pursuing low-carbon technologies was reflected in the prevailing Integrated Resource Plan, which incorporates a mix of the generation technologies, besides additional coal-fired generation.

Besides its costs competitiveness, Myoli argued that the technology also had other positive spin-offs, from job creation to the fact that it produced electricity without emitting carbon dioxide.

Quoting from a report entitled ‘Green job realities: Quantifying the economic benefits of generation alternatives’, he highlighted that nuclear power was found to generate the second highest number of direct and permanent jobs after solar photovoltaic installations.

“… and since nuclear generates high quality jobs, it has the highest economic impact above all generation technologies,” Myoli averred, adding that skills generated by nuclear sectors in other countries, such as South Korea, had helped catalyse industrialisation and economic growth.

“South Africa has the added advantage that we have the fourth largest reserves of uranium in the world and the beneficiation of this important resource would enable us to produce nuclear fuel for our own plants and for export markets and ensure security of supply.”

He acknowledged that there had been time and cost overruns on some new nuclear build projects, particularly in Europe. But said these challenges have been related to first-of-a-kind technology platforms, which incorporated improved safety features.

“Like with any new technologies, once the learning curve effects have been dealt with, the cost of these new plants will decrease and stabilise,” he says, noting that several other projects were being delivered on time and within budget.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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