The task team established by the South African government to reassess the country's nuclear energy roll-out plans in light of the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed in the wake of the Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 would be in a position to advise Cabinet "soon" on the outcomes of their work.

Speaking at the Africa Energy Indaba in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the report would provide insight into the construction-design, technology and engineering lessons garnered from the disaster and would empower Cabinet to make an informed decision on South Africa's approach to the deployment of nuclear.

The review had delayed a final decision on how South Africa intended deploying some 9 600 MW of nuclear capacity by 2030. In fact, Peters indicated that the timeframe for delivering the first new nuclear capacity had been pushed back a year from the 2023 schedule outlined in the Integrated Resource Plan for electricity.

But there was a need to put the "shoulder to the wheel" during 2012 to ensure that there was no further slippage, so that the first capacity could be introduced by 2024.

She said that nuclear was likely to play a major role in raising supply security, while assisting South Africa to migrate from its heavy reliance on coal, which still comprised 92% of the country's power generation mix.

The Minister's comments came only days after French utility EDF told Reuters that it planned to bid to build nuclear reactors in South Africa, possibly in partnership with a Chinese company.

It is also understood the South African programme had also attracted the interest of companies and consortia from the US, Korea and Russia.

"We are in a position to either offer a fully French technology, such as the EPR (next generation nuclear reactor), or a Franco-Chinese technology in partnership with Areva and CGNPC (China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp)," EDF CEO Henri Proglio told Reuters.

State-owned power utility Eskom had indicated it remained keen to participate in a nuclear programme, with CEO Brian Dames insisting that it would seek the best deal for South Africa, dismissing the R1-trillion price tag as a certainty.

But Peters acknowledged that South Africa faced a serious nuclear skills constraint and that financing for African energy programmes generally remained tight in light of the current economic climate. But past experiences showed that infrastructure projects pursued during periods of economic downturn had generally worked out to be lower cost than those implemented during the boom times.

Peters also stressed that South Africa's nuclear policy, which was approved in 2008, remained intact. Therefore, besides building nuclear energy capacity, the country remained keen to participate in the full nuclear fuel cycle, from the mining of uranium to the conversion, enrichment and fabrication of nuclear fuel.

Addressing the gathering following Peters, the World Energy Council's (WEC’s) professor Abubakar Sambo said the Minister's views on nuclear were heartening, particularly given ongoing uncertainty about the future of the so-called nuclear renaissance following the events in Japan.

He said the WEC was of the view that nuclear still had a role to play and that the focus should be on better engineering designs to improve plant safety.