JOHANNESBURG, November 25. /ITAR-TASS/. South Africa’s government will have the final say on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country next year, South African Energy Minister Dikobe Benedict Martins told Itar-Tass on Monday.
“We need to complete all necessary procedures. After this we will be able to announce our decision somewhere next year,” he said, declining to assess chances of Russia’s nuclear corporation Rosatom to win a contract for the construction of 9.6 GW of new nuclear capacities. “Everything depends on Russia’s opportunities in nuclear technologies and experience.”
Martins, who had visited Rosatom’s facilities in Russia ten days ago, said his ministry also conducted talks with France, the United States and other countries, which bade to build new nuclear power plants in South Africa.
The South African energy minister said the main thing for his country was to ensure energy balance between green nuclear and hydro power.
Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko told the forum of nuclear industry suppliers ATOMEX-Africa that Russia offered South Africa to build not only a nuclear power plant, but in fact to create its own nuclear industry and ensure localisation of production from 40% to 60%.
This would create from 15,000 to 30,000 new jobs and yield $16 billion only at the construction stage and $5 billion in direct budget revenues, he said.
In the future South African partners after assimilating nuclear technologies would be able together with Rosatom to enter markets of third countries, where the Russian state-controlled corporation’s backlog of orders had already exceeded $65 billion.