Joemat-Pettersson says nuclear is nonnegotiable due to water shortages
ENERGY Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said on Wednesday SA had to go “nuclear” because renewable energy could not supply the base load the country would need in the future.Speaking on the second day of the state of the nation (Sona) debate, Ms Joemat-Pettersson said the country lacked adequate water to support coal-fired power generation.Nuclear power plants such as Koeberg in the Western Cape used seawater while coal-fired plants such as Medupi used fresh water. “Renewables won’t supply enough base load” and “we will continue building on the success of Koeberg”, she said.Ms Joemat-Pettersson said since 2011 there had been a new sense of urgency in investment in renewable energy, with R100bn in investment in the Western Cape alone.At Sona last week, President Jacob Zuma said the plan was to “introduce 9,600MW of nuclear energy in the next decade”.However, he said SA would “test the market to ascertain the true cost of building modern nuclear plants” and “will only procure nuclear o...
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