South Africa: Government to Decide On Nuclear Procurement Process

allAfrica.com

October 1, 2014

Pretoria — The Department of Energy on Wednesday announced that government will decide on which procurement method will be used to acquire 9 600MW of nuclear power.

“… There will be a procurement process and the work that the department is doing is preparation towards that procurement process,” Deputy Director General (DDG) for Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy, Zizamele Mbambo, said.

South Africa recently signed an Intergovernmental Agreement on Strategic Partnership and Cooperation in Nuclear Energy and Industry with Russia.

The agreement lays the foundation for the large-scale nuclear power plants (NPP) procurement and development programme of South Africa. This will be based on the construction of new nuclear power plants in SA with Russian VVER reactors, with total installed capacity of up to 9.6 GW (up to 8 NPP units).

At Wednesday’s briefing, the department said it is currently doing work in preparation towards the procurement process.

“We’ve highlighted that various models exist in the international space of the procurement process and South Africa would review all this and choose whichever procurement process it chooses to implement the nuclear programme. That decision will be made in the future,” said Mbambo.

Internationally, various procurement models are used and these are informed by the way in which countries want to roll out their nuclear programmes.

“This will apply to SA as well. Government will make a decision and say what is our national interest in rolling out this process,” said Mbambo, adding that the procurement process has not started.

South Africa has a number of nuclear agreements with several countries, including Russia and the US. SA is set to sign an agreement with France this month.

The department’s Acting Director General, Dr Wolsey Barnard, said that no information relevant to the public about South Africa’s nuclear build will be withheld.

South Africa’s nuclear energy policy was approved in 2008 and was further enhanced by the approval of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2010 – 2030, which stipulates that nuclear power will form part of the country’s energy mix to a level of 9 600MW.

“Some of the key elements of the policy revolve around the fact that as South Africa, we want to be self-sufficient. We want to be able to exploit nuclear technology for peaceful use purposes. Currently, people are focusing on the 9 600MW, which is mainly for the generation of electricity. But if you look into the process, the entire programme involves training, skills development and job creation [among others],” said Mbambo.

South Africa is looking at the entire nuclear energy value chain.

On how long will the procurement process take, Mbambo said that this will depend on the type of model that government approves.

He said the aim of the procurement process is to put the country on a path where there is energy security and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, among others.

To date, South Africa generates 5% of its electricity from nuclear power through the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant in the Western Cape.

At the centre of the new nuclear build programme will be a concerted localisation plan that will ensure that existing South African industry participates to the maximum extent.

The department said government is committed to ensuring that the new nuclear build programme is undertaken in a fair, competitive and cost effective manner.

– SAnews.gov.za

South Africa Signs Agreement With Russia for Nuclear Power

Bloomberg News

Paul Burkhardt

September 22, 2014

South Africa signed a partnership agreement with Russia’s state-owned nuclear company that may see Rosatom Corp. build reactors in Africa’s second-biggest economy.

“The agreement lays the foundation for the large-scale nuclear power plants procurement and development program” using Russian VVER reactors with installed capacity of about 9,600 megawatts, or as many as eight nuclear units, Rosatom and the South African government said in an e-mailed statement today. The country also has a draft nuclear cooperation pact with China.

South Africa’s integrated resources plan envisions 9,600 megawatts of nuclear energy being added to the national grid to help reduce reliance on coal, which utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. uses to generate 80 percent of the country’s electricity. The state-owned company is struggling to meet power demand,

The National Treasury said in February 2013 that a 300 billion-rand ($27 billion) nuclear program was in the final stages of study.

Areva SA (AREVA), EDF SA (EDF), Toshiba Corp. (6502)’s Westinghouse Electric Corp., China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corp., Rosatom and Korea Electric Power Corp. (015760) have expressed interest in building the plants.

Local Procurement

“This agreement opens up the door for South Africa to access Russian technologies, funding, infrastructure, and provides a proper and solid platform for future extensive collaboration,” South African Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said in the statement. It will allow the country to implement its plan to create more nuclear capacity by 2030, she said.

The collaboration will result in orders worth at least $10 billion to local industrial companies, Rosatom Director General Sergei Kirienko said in the statement.

In addition to building the nuclear units, the agreement provides for partnerships including the construction of a Russian technology-based research reactor, assistance in the development of South African nuclear infrastructure and education of specialists at Russian universities, the parties said in the statement.

Rosatom currently holds projects for the construction of 29 nuclear power plants, including 19 foreign commissions in countries including India, China, Turkey, Vietnam, Finland and Hungary.

Financial Implications

Eskom operates a 1,800-megawatt nuclear facility at Koeberg, near Cape Town. In December, the Energy Ministry published a revised 20-year energy plan, which projected that new nuclear power won’t be required until at least 2025.

If finalized, the deal may have significant financial risks and implications for electricity prices in South Africa, said Anne Fruhauf, an analyst at New York-based consultants Teneo Intelligence.

South Africa’s energy regulator last month approved a power-tariff increase that could amount to 5 percentage points on top of the above-inflation 8 percent previously agreed, and prices may have to rise even further for Eskom, which supplies 95 percent of the country’s electricity needs, to plug a 225 billion-rand funding gap.

“The million-dollar question will be the financing details and equity ownership,” Fruhauf said in an e-mailed response to questions. “We don’t have the details yet but it could be one of the biggest public procurement programs on which South Africa has ever embarked.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in Johannesburg atpburkhardt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.netAna Monteiro, John Bowker

Gauteng Civil Society Marches for Nuclear – Free South Africa

AllAfrica.com

November 12, 2012

PRESS RELEASE

Thousands of people from civil society groups across Gauteng today took part in a march to protest against South Africa’s nuclear expansion plans. The activists marched from Pieter Roos Park to Beyers Naude Square, where they handed over a memorandum to the Presidency. Smaller protests and placard demonstrations happened simultaneously in Durban, Cape Town and Bantamsklip.

Members of Earthlife Africa, Greenpeace Africa, Justice and Peace, and Ceasefire formed the alliance with the purpose to raise concerns about the cost of the new build project, the safety of nuclear power and the lack of transparency and accountability in the nuclear sector.

According to Earthlife Africa’s Makoma Lekalakala “The country’s new nuclear build is estimated to be at least R1 trillion in public funds. The cost for the nuclear infrastructure build will ultimately be passed down to South Africans which means we are heading for devastating poverty amongst millions of already impoverished South Africans”

Since Fukushima, several countries around the world have moved away from nuclear energy. While the world sees nuclear as dangerous and unsafe, the South African government approved a nuclear expansion plan barely a month after the Fukushima disaster and has remained adamant that this is the best option for the country.

“Government has refused to listen to the people. They can ignore a few but they cannot ignore thousands. It is irresponsible for the South African government to want to expose their people to the threats of nuclear contamination as we recently witnessed in Fukushima” said Greenpeace Africa’s climate and energy campaigner Ferrial Adam.

There has been little public information on the procurement and tender processes. The Department of Energy is set to make the largest state expenditure in South Africa’s history. At the moment, the Department’s procurement of energy, especially with the procurement of renewable energy in the REBID process, has been opaque at best.

“Civil Society will be watching the nuclear energy procurement process very closely. The nuclear industry has often functioned under a veil of secrecy. We have the right to know and we will demand that the procurement processes are open and transparent. The era of secret deals like the arms deal must come to an end” added Adam.

“Ultimately we want the government to heed our call for just energy solutions. Nuclear energy is not the answer,” concluded Lekalakala.

The Nigerian million march

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By Segun Balogun

September 11, 2011

Why this project at this time?

This project serves two purposes: to set the agenda for the new administration to the effect that lack of electricity in Nigeria will be first priority and nothing else. And to create a greater awareness that, the lack of electricity denies Nigerians of their fundamental basic necessities of life.

We want to drive this point home to the Nigerian leadership and as such, we are calling for a simultaneous peaceful Nigerian Million March set for October 24th, in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, London, and several locations in the USA; to express our discontent and to bring global attention to this problem and, with the hope of forcing and pressing our leaders to perform. We are also encouraging the citizens of Nigeria around the globe who are not fortunate to be physically present at any of the locations, to organise a march wherever they reside.

Many Nigerians have different sordid electricity tales to tell. You live in the US, so what sordid tale kick-started this project?

The date was Thursday February 3rd 2011. I read an article in a Nigerian newspaper titled “Government intensifies effort to generate power from nuclear sources.” I could not believe what I just read. As a nation we are not able to effectively manage a conventional power grid and, here we are “intensifying effort” at Nuclear power. This, to me, is a brazen “Bait and Switch” scheme, perpetrated to suction our money for the next 100 years.

I was livid, to say the least, and was madly upset after reading the article. Enough already. I slapped the dining table. This is another ploy of diverting attention from solving the pressing electricity crisis. We are about to embark on another white elephant project, a very dangerous one for that matter.

All Nigerians should be mad too. Nuclear power is no child’s play. In the United States, no community wants such a project in their neighbourhood. It’s called a “NIMBY” (Not In My Back Yard) in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan due to earthquake. The country is now planning to eventually phase out operation of nuclear plants. Germany is also planning a gradual phase out as well due to high risks involved in nuclear plant operations. It requires an astronomical technical capabilities and a world class maintenance culture. May I remind us of our maintenance culture? Zilch.

All things considered, the idea of Nuclear plant operation in Nigeria is a joke like many other projects such as the Ajaokuta project, the refineries. Nigerians, we need to wake up, and stop this nuclear train idea before, it leaves the station. Otherwise, we’ve got another giant sucking “black hole” scheme coming.

But federal government claims it is investing huge sums in the power sector, especially since the roll out of the power sector roadmap…

Of course, we at ‘Let there be light in Nigeria’ project group agree that huge sums of money were being poured into power sector. What is annoying is the excuse that government officials keep telling us such investments have “gestation period.” That’s the “Nigerian leader swagger talk” and it’s a code to cover up for business as usual, another contract fund embezzled.

Show us the project plans, the Scope, the Master Schedules, the Milestones, the Period of Performances, the deliverable dates on these contracts, rather than talking about “gestation” period.

There are thousands of contract that are several years past delivery due dates. Can someone show us a one mile radius in Nigeria today that has consistently sustained un-interrupted electricity supply, even after the huge sums of money that were poured unto the power sector?

It’s high time we expressed our major discontent against our leaders and press them very hard to start delivering on the electrification power contracts and to stop their wicked and cruel ways of continuously raking us over.

What exactly should Nigerians be demanding from government?

Transparency and accountability. At least, power issues do not fall under classified information. We want to know what happened to the funds expended on numerous contracts that had been awarded. Without this, we believe more investments will not necessarily solve the problem if, it keeps going the same route as the old investments.

We just want this electricity problem taken care of promptly and efficiently and we realise electricity is not a peculiar problem. There are plenty of solutions everywhere and around the globe to choose from…Read more.