South Africa nuclear plans set for revival


Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation to investigate and co-operate in the development of local fabrication capabilities for fuel assembly components. Plans for the Nuclear 1 project in Western Cape were abandoned in December 2008 because of cost, but South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan 2010-2030 allows for 9.6GW of nuclear generation capacity. “It has become crystal-clear that coal is not a long-term solution to our needs,” deputy president and chairman of the National Nuclear Energy Executive Co-ordination Committee Kgalema Motlanthe told the Nuclear Africa 2013 conference in Midrand in March.