Second Koeberg OK'ed

2007-02-12 16:09

Cape Town - The government had approved the construction of a second nuclear power station in the southern part of the country, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in parliament on Monday.

Speaking at the economic cluster briefing in parliament, Erwin said the new nuclear reactor was approved by the Eskom board last year.

He said the project was still in the pre-tender stage, but once the technical aspects had been evaluated a decision on the preferred bidder would be made during the first quarter of this year.

He said it would be located in the southern part of the national grid in the Cape provinces where more base-load supply was required.

Won't say where

"One does not reveal where a nuclear power plant is to be built, because we still have to acquire the land, although we might have already done that," he said.

Regarding the capacity of the reactor, he said this would be decided upon after it had been configured into the existing grid.

However, he said the base-load demand in southern parts of the country would suggest a capacity of more than 1 000 megawatts (MW).

Erwin also gave details about the proposed pebble bed modular reactor which he said could be used for many purposes - from water desalination to the production of hydrogen and methane gas.

He said the pebble bed system had advantages over conventional nuclear power stations in that it did not run the risk of meltdowns and proliferation because the fuel was locked into separate modules.

He said the modules, which each had a capacity of 135 MW, could be deployed in cities and towns around the country wherever needed.

- SAPA