Detailed technical work was required before a definitive cost figure could be ascribed to South Africa’s proposal to build a 9 600 MW fleet of nuclear power stations, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday, indicating that the “indicative” R300-billion figure outlined in the Budget Review still had to be firmed up.

Earlier, it had been reported that the programme could cost as much as R1-trillion, which had helped animate the already significant opposition to the programme, which had been included in the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electricity, and that nuclear would contribute 23% of the new generation to be added between 2010 and 2030.

This opposition had increased following the Fukushima nuclear accident, in Japan last year, which had led government to set up a task team to reassess the approach that the country should adopt in rolling out its nuclear energy plan. That work had advanced to the stage where it would be presented to government soon and would enable Cabinet to make an informed decision on the approach that should be adopted.

In addition, a technical working group was finalising an advisory report for the National Nuclear Energy Executive Coordination Committee (NNEECC), which had been established under the chairpersonship of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to oversee the process of setting in place a framework for the build programme.

“When all the technical work has been done . . . we will then be in a better position to answer questions on the type of tender and the specifications,” Peters said at a Infrastructure Development Cluster briefing held Cape Town, with a link to Pretoria.

“The [R300-billion] is not a thumb suck, [but] we don’t actually say that it is the end amount,” she added.

The NNEECC brought together the departments of Energy, Public Enterprises, Environmental and Water Affairs, Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Science and Technology and Higher Education and would seek to ensure that an integrated approach was taken, covering everything from localisation and industrialisation to skills development and training.

In line with Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act, government would set the policy framework, the plan and would be involved in the selection of the technology and the consortium to build the plants. It would also make a call as to whether the plants should be built in collaboration with the power utility Eskom or by independent power producers.

However, Peters stressed that the developer, not government, would determine from where the technology and components should be sourced, while overseeing the actual engineering, procurement and construction of the plants.

As part of government efforts to maximise domestic industrial and employment benefits government would work with the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa.

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

Pronouncements regarding the nuclear build would be made later in the year, with Peters again indicating that a decision was required soon, owing to the fact that the timeframe for delivering the first new nuclear capacity had been delayed by a year from the 2023 schedule outlined in the IRP. This was owing to the reassessment made following Fukushima.

This gap might need to be filled by additional renewable energy projects.