beyondbrics

Nestled near the toe of Africa 30km from Cape Town, Koeberg power station – the continent’s only nuclear plant – is unlikely to face an earthquake similar to the one that sparked the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima site.

But that has not prevented renewed debate over the future of nuclear power in South Africa, as Japan battles to prevent a meltdown.

“It has a bearing on the way in which we make decisions, on the way in which we make policies, but also on the way we construct nuclear power plants,” Dipuo Peters, energy minister, said on Tuesday at a conference in Cape Town.

The Japanese crisis came as South African nuclear proponents were anticipating a new wave of investment in the sector. A draft long-term energy plan, published late last year but still awaiting official approval, envisaged the construction of 9,600MW of nuclear generation capacity by 2030 – on top of the existing 1,800MW at Koeberg – compared with today’s total of 40,000MW from all sources.

A scaling back of that plan would be a new blow to South Africa’s nuclear industry – in part the legacy of the apartheid regime’s drive for energy self-sufficiency and its abortive nuclear weapons programme. Last September saw the state pull the plug on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor – a pioneering foray into a cutting-edge, highly efficient and more secure form of nuclear power – bringing a glum close to a 16-year, $1.3bn project that could have put the country in the international vanguard of nuclear technology.

That decision prompted howls of exasperation from South African nuclear scientists. But as the world takes fright at the news from Fukushima, they will find their international opportunities limited.

Their concern will be shared by parts of the mining industry, after the spot uranium price fell by 9.8 per cent in the week to Monday – its biggest fall since the financial crisis hit in late 2008. South Africa is the world’s 11th-biggest producer of uranium, with significant Johannesburg-listed miners of the mineral including AngloGold Ashanti, First Uranium and Uranium One. The former’s uranium exposure is small compared with its huge presence in gold – but both the latter two companies saw their share price fall by about 20 per cent on Tuesday alone.

Further reading
Meltdown battles revive reactor safety concerns, FT
Japan Earthquake in depth, FT
Brazil’s nuclear power: no change, FT
Taiwan: new edge in nuclear debate, beyondbrics
China: trust us on nuclear power, beyondbrics
India: Japan earthquake raises awkward questions in nuclear debate, beyondbrics
Turkey: tough nuclear choices, beyondbrics