Electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa inspected the facilities of X-energy, the US developer of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) during a visit to the US last week to assess its capabilities, his office confirmed.
This visit comes amid the government’s plans to procure 2,500MW of new nuclear generation capacity. This is significantly larger than Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power plant, which has two units with a generation capacity of 920MW each.
Indications are that the government may consider one SMR, along with two conventional units, in the transaction. The SMR could be installed at the Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) site at Pelindaba outside Pretoria to expand the country’s existing nuclear capabilities and establish a supply chain for these reactors to serve the local and other African countries.
X-energy is the company in which C5 Capital, led by South African André Pienaar, holds a stake. It is currently building four Xe-100 SMRs for Dow Chemicals in Seadrift, Texas, that is expected to be operational by 2028.
X-energy recently announced an investment by tech giant Amazon as well as further collaboration between the two companies.
Pienaar explained Amazon’s involvement with X-energy and the opportunities for SA from a shareholder’s perspective, saying it was driven by technology companies’ significant need for clean energy for artificial intelligence (AI). “One AI query uses up to 10 times as much power as a Google search,” Pienaar said.
Amazon has already paid $300m (R5.3bn) for a stake in X-energy. The size of Amazon’s shareholding has not been disclosed. Additionally, Amazon has committed to working with X-energy to develop 4,500MW of SMRs to power Amazon data centres at different locations. A typical plant consists of four units with a total output of 320MW, meaning Amazon will contribute additional funds for 14 new SMRs.
What Pienaar considers most significant is Amazon’s ability to build data centres and computer power efficiently and cost-effectively. This capability will now be used to industrialise the manufacturing of SMRs worldwide. “The SMR industry needs industrialists to develop production lines to build these reactors in the same way aeroplane engines are built.”
He says in the past, nuclear power came in huge structures owned by governments, but in the future, private companies will be able to supply their own electricity as reactors become smaller and more affordable. “They are getting smaller, just like computers. We now have more computing power in our phones than the Apollo had when it went to the moon.”
Pienaar says C5 has completed its feasibility study for developing a privately funded SMR locally. “SA has a major advantage over most other countries due to its existing nuclear capability.” At least 80 countries worldwide, including several in Africa, have nuclear ambitions for civilian use, but it is not easy. He said that to develop nuclear capability, a country needed a regulatory framework, expertise, funding and participation in the value chain.
“SA is already there. It has built a successful nuclear programme worth billions over decades.” Pienaar adds SA has a highly skilled nuclear workforce in demand in other countries. “South Africans recently played a key role in developing nuclear capability in the UAE and are now helping build SMRs in the US.”
Moreover, SA has built a valuable nuclear value chain and has the ability to process uranium, build and operate reactors with US and French firms, and use the technology in other applications, such as nuclear medicine. A significant asset is the existing regulatory framework, with regulations and permits developed for SMRs in the pebble-bed reactor programme, which the government discontinued.
The opportunity for SA was even greater in the context of data centres, Pienaar said. “SA has the most sophisticated data centres ecosystem in Africa. The digital economy here and in and Africa is one of the fastest-growing globally. All major US cloud technology companies have invested in digital infrastructure in SA — Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon.”
With these data centres as potential off-takers, Pienaar believes there is a clear case for SMR development. The next phase, with the feasibility study completed, is to agree with the SA government on a formal development plan to deliver nuclear energy directly to the consumer.
“We need to agree on an investment plan with the government. We’ll bring the reactor as well as new capital,” Pienaar said, adding that Ramokgopa’s visit was the first engagement with the government.
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