S. Africa Plans to Construct Second Nuclear Power Plant
Posted on: Saturday, 25 March 2006, 09:00 CST
S. Africa plans to construct second nuclear power plant
JOHANNESBURG, March 24 (Xinhua) -- South Africa plans to construct its second nuclear power station to ease the crisis of power supply which becomes increasingly serious due to rapid economic growth, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported on Friday.
The country's public enterprises ministry has confirmed that a feasibility study is under way into the station, the SAPA report said.
The new plant would be reportedly sited near the Koeberg nuclear power station in Cape Town, the only one in Africa at present.
"We are considering a nuclear plant. There is a feasibility study under way, to determine the cost and the location," Gaynor Kast, spokeswoman for minister Alec Erwin, was quoted as saying.
But Kast did not confirm the plant's location and the cost, reportedly 16 billion rand (2.54 billion U.S. dollars), saying those were "mere speculation at this stage."
The SAPA also cited a speech of Erwin at a nuclear industry conference in London earlier this week, in which the minister said the South African government was "giving serious consideration to another large nuclear plant" in addition to the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) project.
He admitted that rapid economic growth in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces in the south was placing great pressure on the transmission grid.
Some energy experts have recently warned that South Africa could face a nationwide power supply crisis due to a lack of power stations and effective maintenance of current facilities.
They said the rest of the country, which supplies two-thirds of Africa's electricity, could expect similar serious power failures to the ones Cape Town has experienced since November.
The damage to one of the generators at Koeberg nuclear power station, reportedly caused by a bolt, has brought about frequent shutdown of the power plant and outages of electricity in the Western Cape Province since December, causing huge economic losses.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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