Page 9 - AfrElec Week 05 2023

AfrElec NUCLEAR AfrElec

South Africa nuclear projects viable

but challenging, experts warn

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s civil rights organisation AfriFo-
rum is considering an electricity generation pro-
ject that involves nuclear as a long-term solution
for the country’s persistent power challenges,
News24 reports.
Amid a national energy crisis, the lobby
group is seeking a solution that includes the
revival of pebble-bed modular reactors, with
the help of André Pienaar, a venture capitalist
whose US-based investment company X-energy
is working on the technology. However, experts
are concerned about the viability of the project.
South Africa is no stranger to pebble-bed
modular reactors and even had its own dedi-
cated company, PBMR. The technology is viable
but costly and will take roughly 10 years to come
online, says David Nicholls, state power utility
Eskom’s former chief nuclear officer and PBMR’s
ex-president. There will also be regulatory hur-
dles to overcome. processes, nuclear is not as easy as setting up a
The idea is to combine several small nuclear solar plant, and developers would probably face
reactors together in modules instead of having legal challenges from various organisations.
one large reactor. For example, it would take According to Winkler, nuclear developers
about 10 modules of 100 MW to constitute need to consider safety features, as well as con-
one unit of 920 MW at South Africa’s Koeberg ducting relevant environmental impact studies,
nuclear power station. and obtaining the required approvals for the sites
Nicholls was involved in raising foreign where plants would be built. Waste disposal also
investment to get the PBMR off the ground ini- needs to be addressed.
tially in the 90s. Later, the government took over Compared to renewables, Winkler sees
funding but stopped the project in 2010, after nuclear as hardly a competitive solution. “If solar
billions of rand had been wasted. The scientists and wind can get around the problem of inter-
involved went on to work on similar projects mittency by developing very large battery sys-
elsewhere in the world, including X-energy. tems, then it is going to be very difficult to beat
AfriForum’s CEO Kallie Kriel said the group that in price,” he said, adding: “I don’t see any
was aware of the challenges ahead and was work- new nuclear being able to compete with that”.
ing together with nuclear specialists involved in AfriForum’s push for cleaner energy is not
AfriForum’s push pebble-bed modular technology. “We are not exclusive to nuclear. The energy solution should
be a combination of options, Kriel told News24,
ignorant of the hurdles to get there,” he noted.
for cleaner energy According to Kriel, AfriForum’s task team and nuclear is required to deal with the intermit-
is not exclusive to is putting together a roadmap and will engage tency issues of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind.
the government on what needs to be done to roll
Instead of relying on coal for grid stability,
nuclear. out more nuclear, so South Africa can seize the nuclear is considered a more sustainable option.
The European Commission last year classified
opportunity when ready.
Others, including professor Hartmut Win- nuclear as green energy. However, environmen-
kler, a physicist at the University of Johannes- tal groups, including Greenpeace, are legally
burg with an interest in energy matters, have challenging this classification, writes the media
little faith in pebble-bed modular reactors, argu- agency.
ing that there is no complete model for them Winkler believes the successful life extension
anywhere in the world. of the Koeberg nuclear power plant would be
However, US and Chinese companies are an indication of whether South Africa can take
currently conducting research on the technol- on new nuclear projects. Currently, Unit 1 of
ogy. Recently the US Nuclear Regulatory Com- Koeberg is offline to carry out its steam gener-
mission approved the design for the US’ first ator replacement, which should take about six
small (50-MW) nuclear reactor. months.
Winkler, who acknowledges there is momen- “If they mess up this one again, then we
tum around small nuclear reactors, also argues should not be talking about nuclear in this
that it would take “extremely long” to build com- country at all,” Winkler was quoted by News24
plete nuclear plants. When it comes to regulatory as saying.™

Week 05 01•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P9