SA open to ‘any country’ for nuclear project bids, including Russia and Iran

SA could turn to Russia or Iran to expand its civilian nuclear power capacity, a senior government minister said, a stance analysts say could deepen a rift with the US and further delay the renewal of a strategic energy pact.

SA, which operates Africa’s only nuclear power plant, Koeberg, plans to add 2,500MW of new capacity to tackle the electricity outages that have plagued the economy and to reduce emissions.

“We can’t have a contract that says Iran or Russia must not bid, we can’t have that condition,” said minister of mineral resources Gwede Mantashe, one of the government’s leading proponents of expanding nuclear capacity.

“If they are the best in terms of the offer on the table, we’ll take any [country],” he said.

SA is under scrutiny from Washington after President Donald Trump issued a far-reaching executive order this month, halting aid.

Among other criticisms, the order claimed — without providing evidence — that SA was “reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military and nuclear arrangements”.

Pretoria has no bilateral co-operation with Iran on nuclear power or any nuclear-related technology, the presidency said.

A US state department spokesperson did not comment on the possibility of Iran or Russia helping SA expand its civilian nuclear capacity.

An SA tender for nuclear projects, initially planned for last year, has been delayed for further consultation after legal challenges led by the then-opposition DA, now part of the coalition government.

Pretoria and Washington had been seeking to conclude, after almost a decade of talks, a new civilian nuclear pact known as a section 123 agreement, a prerequisite for exporting US-made nuclear fuel or equipment.

“The allegations made in the executive order can significantly complicate getting the agreement renewed,” said Isabel Bosman, a nuclear energy researcher at the SA Institute of International Affairs.

The state department spokesperson did not comment on whether Trump’s executive order would affect talks between the two countries.

The previous 123 agreement, implemented in 1997, lapsed in December 2022.

Negotiations for a new agreement have already been finalised at a technical level but nothing is signed yet as legal processes on both sides were incomplete, Zizamele Mbambo, a senior energy department official, said.

“As far as we know, both sides remain firmly committed to concluding this new agreement,” said Mbambo.

Failure to secure a new deal could block Eskom from sourcing reactor fuel from Westinghouse for Unit 1 at Koeberg, industry analysts say.

Unit 2 is supplied by France’s Framatome. It may also hinder US companies, such as the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower and ASP Isotopes, from investing in SA during a global atomic renaissance, the analysts added.

Reuters