Eskom’s Koeberg nuclear power station outside Cape Town.
The Department of Energy has put out a call for bidders to craft a nuclear procurement framework for the country’s revived nuclear programme, which aims to add 2 500 MW of power to SA’s grid sometime after 2030.
The successful bidder will need to recommend how the procurement process should be run, what funding models should be used, and how the South African industry can benefit.
The winning bidder will have 12 weeks to produce a series of reports for the Department of Energy on procuring both conventional pressurised water reactors and small modular reactors.
Once these reports have been received and analysed, the department will put out a Request for Proposal for new nuclear power, which will officially kick off the procurement process.
The department has previously said it hopes to wrap up procurement by 2024, meaning construction can start soon after.
SA has one nuclear power station, Koeberg, which was commissioned in 1984 and is powered by two nuclear reactors.
An ambitious plan to quadruple South Africa’s nuclear power gained prominence under former president Jacob Zuma, but was scuppered by a 2017 court ruling.
While the Department of Energy has said nuclear power will make SA’s energy mix more diverse, reduce power costs and help the fight against climate change, critics say nuclear power is unaffordable, will take too long to construct, and divert scarce resources for wind and solar power.
