South Africa was "well-equipped" to have nuclear power stations and had a "nuclear safety culture", Eskom said on Monday.
South Africa
was
"well-equipped" to have nuclear power stations and had a
"nuclear safety culture", Eskom said on Monday.
"Clearly we would be looking at what actually happened in Japan... but
South Africa has a nuclear safety culture because of Koeberg station,"
Eskom spokesman for nuclear power Tony Stott told Sapa.
"Nuclear power is certainly complex...It requires management depending on
the level of risk, but the level of risk in nuclear is low," Stott said.
"How many people are killed on the roads every day compared to people
killed in the nuclear industry...obviously if something does go wrong in
nuclear the consequences are enormous."
Stott said most of the nuclear reactors at power stations in
Japan
shut
themselves down as they were supposed to, following Friday's massive earthquake
and tsunami.
Only the cooling systems were compromised, he said.
"They used boiling water reactors, whereas we use pressurised water
reactors. About 70 percent of all new nuclear stations in the world use the
pressurised system," he said.
Stott said Eskom was familiar with pressurised water reactors and would want to
stick with that design for future nuclear power stations in the country.
"We also know that if we do build more, we would buy modern technology,
and certainly the events that happened would be looked at and taken into
account to see what technology should be used."
The government was expected to make a decision on
South
Africa
's integrated resource Plan
(IRP) for electricity by the end of the month, Stott said.
The plan was expected to reveal how the target for new nuclear power capacity
would be met by 2023. The IRP envisaged about 9600 megawatts of nuclear power,
which would take approximately six power stations to generate, depending on the
size of their reactors, Stott said.
He said the government's announcement would answer whether more power stations
were planned for the country, and whether Eskom or another provider would build
them.
"It is expensive to build nuclear power stations, but once it is
operating, the fuel expense is not as high. In the longer term, in life cycle
costs, they are competitive," Stott said.
"Only once government has announced its decisions will the board meet to
decide if they are happy from a safety point of view, from an investment point
of view," he said.
Environmental group Earthlife S Africa on Monday said nuclear power was not
only risky but also complex, dangerous and expensive.
"We cannot discount the risk that exists for the Koeberg power station. Only
last year, 91 workers at Koeberg were exposed to excess radiation,"
spokesman Tristen Taylor said in a statement.
"Earthlife Africa Jhb calls upon the South African government to abandon
its commitment to nuclear power. The government can do so now, before it signs
contracts for the purchases of new nuclear reactors, and make investments in
clean and secure renewable energy."
Taylor
said
a non-nuclear, low-carbon future was possible and safe.
"There is no need to run the risks made so tragically clear by the current
and evolving situation in
Japan
."
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