October 1, 2009

Africa Looks to Nuclear for Future Generation

Sonal Patel

Africa is emerging as a prominent voice in calling for a global nuclear renaissance. Driven by chronic shortages from population explosions, decades of drought, and dependence on hydropower — and spurred by discoveries of significant uranium reserves on the continent — several countries are considering nuclear power as a viable option.

South Africa

South Africa has a significant advantage over the continent’s other nations because it houses the only nuclear power plant in Africa — the 1,800-MW Koeberg Station, which was built in 1984 on the Western Cape (Figure 5). Stricken with a power shortage that has taken a toll on the continent’s largest economy, the country is convinced nuclear power will be key to battling the crunch.

5.     Will Africa go nuclear? Only one nuclear plant exists in Africa today—Eskom’s 1,800-MW Koeberg Station in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Several other countries on the continent are looking to nukes for future power generation, including Egypt, Namibia, and Eastern African nations. Courtesy: Eskom

It is considering the construction of three new nuclear power stations on its coastline. The new stations, provisionally known as Nuclear 1, 2, and 3, would each be able to deliver twice as much electricity as Koeberg. The government wants to build Nuclear 1 starting in 2012, next to the existing Koeberg plant, and at the same time begin work on Nuclear 2 at Bantamsklip, southeast of Pearly Beach. It would later build Nuclear 3 at Thyspunt near Cape St. Francis in Eastern Cape, South African newspaper Die Burger reported this July, citing a study carried out on the government’s behalf by engineering consultancy group Arcus Gibb.

No decisions on reactor technology have been made yet, but experts agree that the choice must be economically viable. Some even assert that the government is considering the homegrown Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, of which an 80-MW pilot plant is expected to come online by 2018, with initial costs estimated at 27 billion rand ($3.45 billion).