If the government’s plans to spend R60bn on nuclear energy don’t prioritise local suppliers, the country will fall behind in nuclear innovation and remain a net importer of the technology, says Olivia Vaughan, commercial director and co-founder of Stratek Global.
The company told Business Times this week that since South Africa suspended its nuclear programme in 2010, skilled personnel with technical knowledge had left the country to lend their expertise in other markets.
Stratek was formed in 2021 to bring together the expertise that exists in the private sector on civilian nuclear applications. It is a leading actor in small modular reactors (SMR), which produce energy.
“This is a global product. It would be a very big shame for us to have to develop this cutting-edge technology outside South Africa first. If the current climate continues like it is, with politics taking precedence over the economic prosperity of the country ... then what we will see is we will have to take our teams and build this somewhere else,” she said.
Having pioneered the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project, which has since been shut down, South Africa had considerable nuclear expertise in the private sector, which was now spread around the world.
The South African Nuclear Corporation (Necsa) has announced plans to revive the PBMR programme, whose facility is based in Pelindaba, west of Pretoria. It's currently under care and maintenance, with Eskom as its custodian. Necsa wants to use the reactor for nuclear fuel production.
Electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa recently said South Africa was keen to approach experts from countries such as Russia and China to tap into their expertise as it plans to spend R60bn on a minimum 10GW nuclear build programme.
Vaughan said there were not many jobs and skills transfer opportunities in solar farms, for example, but nuclear plants needed skilled people to build, run and operate them.
“The skills that will be attracted back into the country, in terms of all our physicists and engineers who are working all over the world, in itself will bring a capital injection and also bring a skills base back in. And then we’ve got to reskill or upskill ... cement work, welding and all of the things that go with megaprojects.”
She said domestic nuclear SMR build and exports would influence incomes, skills return, capital potential and reskilling and upskilling in various sectors, including construction.
Speaking to Business Times on the sidelines of this week’s Africa Energy Forum in Cape Town, Ramokgopa was candid about the attrition of nuclear technical capability.
“Historically, we have been able to show that we are in a position to build the necessary capability to anchor that build programme, but then we stopped building that nuclear capability and those skills have left the country.
To suggest that if we were to restart the nuclear programme [and] suddenly we will be able to recreate the skills, I think, is the height of folly
— Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, electricity and energy minister
“To suggest that if we were to restart the nuclear programme [and] suddenly we will be able to recreate the skills, I think, is the height of folly. We need to build that over a period of time, accepting that other jurisdictions, most notably South Korea, France, China and Russia have really moved far ahead of us.”
He said there was room to learn from the experiences of other markets in finding aspects of the nuclear power and technology value chain and fuel cycle that could be domesticated.
“Clearly, there’s appetite ... from the research institutions, from the universities, to work with government to recreate those skills, but that will be on the back of a build programme ... partnering with other players and ... we will also need to go out and look for money to support the build programme.”
Judy Kobus, head of infrastructure sector solutions at RMB, said corporate and investment banks in South Africa had not prioritised plans around nuclear power because clarity was needed from the government on its commitment to the technology.
“As much as government has indicated that nuclear will be part of the energy mix, it hasn't been clear in terms of what the plan around nuclear rollout is. When you look at other more urgent priorities, like renewable generation, trader space or the transmission space of even allowing for virtual wheeling, that is where the market has been focusing.”
Dhireshni Chowthee, principal for energy finance at Nedbank CIB, said South Africa's corporate and investment banks had not yet operated in the nuclear space and would likely wait for the government's lead before deciding how to approach it.
“Nuclear energy is inherently a government-to-government initiative and we see our role as responsive to national direction. It's a long-term, capital-intensive space that requires a clear regulatory and funding framework.”
She said Nedbank CIB, like other commercial banks, would evaluate its position based on the enabling policy environment once it became clear.
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