OREANDA-NEWS. Speaking at the first ever Nuclear Supply Chain conference held in Cape Town on the 1st and 2nd of December 2015, global nuclear player ROSATOM expressed the need for nuclear, in aid of the economic development of the country. The company also reaffirmed its commitment to the South African market and emphasized the vast economic spin offs of its competitive offer.

South Africa is currently facing a number of socio-economic challenges noted Victor Kolesnikov, Counsellor to the President of Rosatom Overseas. “We at Rosatom are not new to the South African market, we understand the challenges faced by the country and have formulated our offer with these challenges in mind.”

Kolesnikov noted that the nuclear new build programme would help boost development in all economic areas from job creation through to industrialization and skills development. Rosatom has all the experience in place, including a successful track record of dealing with localization programmes and national suppliers, to help to foster these developments in South Africa. Moreover, Rosatom throughout its experience in Africa understands, that job creation and working with local industries is key for any big industrial project.

Kolesnikov noted that without a sustainable and reliable power source of baseload power such as nuclear, it will be very difficult to bridge the current socio-economic gap in South Africa. According to Rosatom’s initial estimate the nuclear build in South Africa would result in over 15 000 direct jobs and over 150 000 indirect jobs in the construction phase alone. Nuclear also requires the highest number of skilled workers per 1000 MW of installed capacity than any other power source. According to a paper published by the Nuclear Energy Institute, nuclear requires 500 skilled workers per 1000 MW, whereas coal requires 220, wind 90 and natural gas only 60 per 1000MW of installed capacity.

“Our offer to South Africa is not only based on the construction of nuclear power plant (NPP) units (based on cutting-edge technologies), but rather on the creation of an entire national nuclear industry – from uranium mining, NPP and research reactor construction, up to design and nuclear power equipment manufacturing” continued Kolesnikov. “This industrial boost will lead towards economic development, generating taxes and creating much needed jobs. Ultimately we feel that this is directly in line with the South African governments commendable National Development Plan.”

Kolesnikov then addressed the availability of nuclear skills in the country which have been present for over 50 years and those skills that are to be further built up with the nuclear new build programme.  He mentioned that there has already been a good track record of cooperation between Russian and South African experts in various nuclear areas, including enriched uranium supplies, cooperation in the frames of the PBMR project and isotope production.

Kolesnikov also noted that South Africa is a water scarce nation and that the recent drought has further impacted the economy, he then explained that Rosatom has a number of solutions on offer  in this regard as well, like desalination plants, which can be integrated with the NPP. “In my mind the most obvious solution for South Africa’s current challenges would be nuclear power. It is one the cleanest and statistically the safest form of energy available on the planet today. As a long term investment, it is extremely cost effective, especially when considering its operational lifespan over 60 years, twice that of coal and three times that of renewables,” concluded Kolesnikov.