South Africa, plagued by chronic power shortages, plans to have the country’s new nuclear power plant up and running by 2020, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters told a nuclear conference on Friday.
State-owned Eskom , which operates Africa’s sole nuclear power plant with a total capacity of 1 800MW, cancelled plans to build a new facility at the end of last year, citing financial constraints.
The government has since taken the lead in developing the next power station, saying it wants to develop a local nuclear industry in partnership with a technology firm rather than adopt a commercial bidding process used by Eskom.
”It’s a huge project, and in any project situation you plan with the end in sight, so we are looking at 2020,” she said. — Reuters