The Department of Minerals and Energy said on Monday that it wants to create a new industry around nuclear energy.
Speaking at the release of the draft Nuclear Energy Policy and Strategy for public comment, the department’s director general, Sandile Noxina, said such a new industry would lead to the creation of jobs, “firstly in uranium mining itself” and along the rest of the nuclear energy chain.
The department said the new industry would centre around nuclear energy and uranium production.
“It may move to a situation where we can produce our own nuclear reactors going forward,” it said.
Nuclear energy currently contributes 6% to the energy mix. The department said it would like to double its contribution to the mix to upwards of 15% by 2025 to 2030.
The government has decided that uranium is a strategic mineral and it has hinted that it may provide incentives for the mining and beneficiation of uranium.
Alternatively, the government would consider direct involvement in uranium mining.
Noxina said the government may also amend the current law to ensure that a certain percentage of all uranium mined is made available to the state.
“The regulatory regime is already in place,” said Noxina, who acknowledged that the mining sector is very sensitive to regime change.
“There may have to be a change in the regime depending on what the people of South Africa decide,” he said.
This would of course be done in consultation with the mining industry, he added.
Meanwhile, the department said on Monday that it was planning to produce an initial 4Â 000MW of nuclear energy.
With nuclear energy currently contributing 6% to the energy mix, the doubling of this to upwards of 15% by 2025 to 2030 should help South Africa grow its current 38Â 000MW to 39Â 000MW capacity by an additional 10Â 000MW within ten years, said department chief director of nuclear energy Tseliso Maqubela.
“There is a global resurgence of nuclear energy and we cannot ignore that,” said Maqubela.
He said the priority for the government was to ensure security of energy supply. This meant diversification of energy sources from the country’s over-reliance on coal.
“We envisage the issue of global climate change will become a major one in future,” he added.
Although South Africa doesn’t have obligations in terms of the Kyoto protocol, it has a good reputation in terms of being one of the first countries to volunteer to dismantle its nuclear programme. — I-Net Bridge