The Department of Science and Technology is to help establish a national Nuclear Manufacturing Centre (NNMC), Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena announced in Durban on Thursday.
He was speaking at the National Society of Black Engineers conference in Durban’s Elangeni Hotel.
Mangena said the NNMC would assist the industry to attain the required technological capabilities that would reap potential economic opportunities.
Mangena explained that the centre would focus on workforce development and technology assimilation, and the establishment of standards systems within the Nuclear Quality Assurance framework.
”These focus areas will develop South Africa’s industrial capability for the fabrication of nuclear certified equipment, including pressure vessels, heat exchangers and fuel storage vessels,” he said.
”The NNMC will create opportunities for black engineers to enter the supply chain of the nuclear manufacturing industries”.
Mangena said there would potentially be huge opportunities, over the next 20 years, through the rollout of nuclear power plants in South Africa.
”Black people constitute a large majority in the country. This makes black engineers a critical factor in building the necessary engineering capacity required now and in the future”.
Mangena’s department was also planning to tackle a number of engineering-related initiatives which would streamline opportunities for black engineers and entrepreneurs.
Both efforts are a combined initiative with the Department of Public Enterprises and the Department of Trade and Industry. — Sapa