nuclear-news

In the wake of an announcement on Thursday by Energy Minister Ben Martins that a detailed costing and the extent of the nuclear programme would be made known before the end of the financial year, a range of organisations have come out against the government’s stance in favour of extending South Africa’s nuclear power footprint beyond Koeberg…….

.While Eskom has not provided recent build programme cost estimates, it did provide comparative figures in its third multiyear price determination application to Nersa of gas, coal, wind, solar and concentrated solar power (CSP). Nuclear ended up being the most expensive by far.

It was estimated by Eskom that the dollar per kilowatt capital costs were $6 131 for nuclear (this has since risen to more than $7 000), $2 940 for coal, $1 029 for gas (open cycle turbine plant using liquid fuel), $684 for gas (closed cycle gas turbine using gas), $3 258 for wind, $2 750 for solar photovoltaic and $5 802 for CSP.

Martins did not answer questions why the government was hell bent on the nuclear option, but DA energy spokesman Lance Greyling said the “government loves big projects” and believed it needed to build “big base-load power stations”…….

AHI chief executive Christo van der Rheede said the building of additional power plants, whether coal or nuclear, should be subjected to an extensive impact assessment process.

The intended nuclear plan would be “very costly” and if anything went wrong it would have a devastating impact on people and the environment, he noted. Additional “mega coal power plants” – a reference to the building of the so-called Coal 3 – would have serious implications on water resources, the environment and food security.

“Much more emphasis must be placed on solar powered plants and community based projects using wind, water and other forms of green energy,” he believed. http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/doubts-over-nuclear-costs-1.1584160#.UknOgdJwonE