nuclear-news

The parliamentary budget office briefed MPs yesterday morning on the cost and other considerations of the country’s electricity generation options.

The office’s research on the costs incurred by more than 400 projects worldwide found that nuclear power generation costs exceeded the original estimates by an average of 117%, compared with 70% for hydroelectric power, 13% for thermal, including coal, 8% for wind power and 1% for solar power.

The office agreed with DA MP Gordon Mackay when he said that decommissioning added 100% to nuclear power costs. The office said the outlay for nuclear power was 67% higher than for gas and 16% more than for coal.

Mackay took the budget office to task for a lack of clarity on:

• The actual cost of the projected nuclear building programme, estimated at R600-million to R1.7-billion;
• Infrastructure construction costs not factored into projections for gas as an energy resource;
• No reference being made by the budget office to the energy preferences listed in the National Development Plan, which supposedly guided government policy;
• The budget office had not reached any conclusion on the costs to consumers of the energy options;
• The effect of each option on the country’s economic growth was not adequately estimated;
• The huge decline in South African energy demand was not sufficiently explained; and
• The decommissioning of the coal-fired power stations was not factored in.

Budget office head Mohammed Jahed said that Mackay’s objections fell outside the mandate given to his office by parliament’s appropriations committee but could be dealt with at a follow-up meeting.