A RECENT opinion piece by Anton Eberhard, titled Nuclear too costly and SA does not even need itOfficial electricity forecasts and plans are obsolete as electricity demand falls, writes Anton Eberhard, cannot go unchallenged.To understand the reasons for or against nuclear energy, perhaps we should first establish on what basis a decision for or against such a move should be made.Is it based on demand forecast, environmental concerns or just capital cost? These seem to be the main focal points being proposed for abandoning the option of nuclear in SA.Had this been the case in 2010, when the first Integrated Resource Plan for electricity supply in SA was developed, we would have had a least-cost and unconstrained power plan. However, this would have resulted in building only coal-fired power stations for base load, and gas and liquid fuel turbines and pumped storage for peaking capacity. Therefore neither renewables nor nuclear would have featured as options.As a consequence, the Ren...
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