Despite delays for almost three years, the hi-tech nuclear reactor that will produce South Africa’s electricity is forging ahead and will be the first in a new generation of helium gas cooled reactors.
The R17bn capital investment project will provide one of the solutions to South Africa’s power problems by 2013 and although not the only technology under development, the project is to become the first commercial-scale high-temperature reactor in the world.
The high-temperature helium gas-cooled reactor is the first of a new generation and the project entails building a demonstration reactor at Koeberg outside Cape Town, and a pilot fuel plant at Pelindaba near Pretoria.
Controversy and a lack of support are thought to have caused the delays up until now, but the demonstration reactor design is now completed and construction is due to start next year – with the first fuel to be loaded four years later. If successful, another 10 plants could later be built.
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