S.Africa's Eskom looks to nuclear plants
4 Sep 2007
By James Macharia

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's largely coal-driven power utility Eskom has hit the limits of its capacity and aims to double output by 2025, with nuclear plants supplying more than a quarter of future energy compared with 6 percent now. Eskom's Chief Executive Jacob Maroga told a coal conference on Tuesday the state-owned firm would cut back on polluting coal-fired plants that have made South Africa the world's lowest cost electricity producer.
"The issues we're faced with are costs and lead time, but the debate around global warming is key, because coal is a big contributor to carbon dioxide emissions," Maroga told the Coaltrans conference. "We can now finally say we have run out of surplus capacity."

Maroga said plans to boost output to 80,000 megawatts (MW) by 2025 would include adding 20,000 MW of nuclear-supplied energy as well as extra renewable capacity. The proportion of output from coal would fall below 70 percent by 2025 from 86 percent currently. "All over the world nuclear is coming back," he said. "Going forward the electricity prices we have will not be sustainable."

The two reactors at South Africa's Koeberg, Africa's only nuclear-fired facility, generate some 6 percent of the country's electricity, mainly used around Cape Town. Maroga said South Africa, one of the biggest producers of uranium, was building a multi-billion dollar new technology pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR), and has mooted building more conventional plants to add to Koeberg.

Eskom was currently planning to expand yearly by 4 percent, to keep up with a projected 6 percent growth in the gross domestic product of Africa's biggest economy. The company has already outlined a 150 billion rand spending programme from 2007 to 2011, with more to follow.

http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN457530.html