Eskom, South Africa’s national electricity utility, published a request for information to assess potential technology vendors. Rosatom was among those who responded to the request. “We have provided the information requested, but it is not yet a bidding process. Pre-bidding and bidding stages will come next. The customer is only making inquiries for now,” Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachov said to the media.
Rosatom has repeatedly stated that South Africa will be given access to all the competencies required to implement its national nuclear development program if cooperation with Russia continues. As has been done on other markets, Asia in particular, Rosatom is ready to establish a local high-end nuclear cluster offering a full range of products and services, from the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle to power engineering. This will enable the country to deliver nuclear power projects both in and outside Africa.
As reported earlier, the presidents of Russia and the South African Republic discussed nuclear cooperation prospects at a meeting in mid-October. In the autumn of 2014, the two countries signed a framework nuclear partnership agreement that provides for joint construction of up to eight nuclear power reactors and cooperation in other fields, including nuclear research, infrastructure development in South Africa and staff training.
In November 2013, Rosatom and South Africa’s Department of Energy approved an agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation in the nuclear industry.
At present, the only operating nuclear station in South Africa is Koeberg having two 930 MW reactors. In 2010, the government approved construction of nuclear power units with a total installed capacity of 9.6 GW. For now, the Cabinet of South Africa has signed memorandums of understanding with vendors from Russia, China, South Korea, France and the USA.
However, only four (Rosatom included) out of 27 nuclear companies that took interest in the South African project are capable of supplying reactors and have expertise in nuclear construction. This was said by Dave Nicholls, who is Chief Nuclear Officer at Eskom, a project owner and future operator of the yet-to-be-built 9.6 GW nuclear station. “It is important that Eskom has received expressions of interest from four global majors offering end-to-end nuclear construction solutions. Companies from China, France, Russia and South Korea are interested in the project,” Mr. Nicholls said on television. Alongside Russia’s Rosatom, the bidders are State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (China), EDF (France) and KEPCO (South Korea). The US Westinghouse Electric Company is not on the bidders’ list, despite its announced intention to take part in the project.
