Necsa sketches time frame for nuclear build contracts
The contract could be awarded in about a year’s time, CEO Phumzile Tshelane says
A request for proposals to build reactors could go out as early as June, as five potential suppliers emerge as leading candidates, the head of the Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA says. Companies from South Korea, France, China, Russia and Japan "are ahead of everyone else" in terms of technology and what they can offer, Necsa CEO Phumzile Tshelane said in an interview in Tokyo. Eskom is responsible for the process to hire developers for the nuclear power plants, and SA is looking for reactors that are proven, but not dated, Tshelane said. "We are not going to build a first of a kind," he said. "Nor are we going to build a last of a kind." SA’s nuclear investment plans have become a lightning rod issue for critics of President Jacob Zuma’s policies, with opposition parties and civil groups questioning the use of funds even before S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings downgraded the country’s international credit rating to junk.
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