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Cape Town – If President Jacob Zuma had a to-do list after his party’s poor performance in the local government elections, then the nuclear build programme would be near the top.
The 9.6 GW nuclear energy programme, which will cost around R650bn over its 10-year lifespan (time and cost overruns excluded), has been sitting on ice since December 2015, when government released a gazette that opened the door for the request for proposals (RFP).
The gazette notice released by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, in consultation with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, said her department would be the procurement agency. The Gazette states that the electricity must be purchased by Eskom “or by any successor entity to be designated by the Minister of Energy, as buyer (off-taker)”.
Joemat-Pettersson’s department said it would publish the RFPs by 31 March, but this deadline has long passed.
However, highly-placed sources told Fin24 on Wednesday that the RFPs would likely be announced in September.
Following this, an announcement of the vendors – which could include Russia’s Rosatom or France’s EDF – could even be made this year.
Getting their house in order
The nuclear programme requires Eskom, Nersa and the Department of Energy to get their houses in order. For Eskom, this means having its nuclear sites ready.
It gave the public until 12 May to comment on its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report, which recommended Thyspunt as the preferred site, with a site (Duynefontein) near Koeberg in Cape Town as the alternative. It also sent the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) two nuclear installation site licence applications on 15 March.
Both applications say Eskom intends to construct and operate multiple nuclear power plants with technology not yet identified.
Civic body Outa said on Tuesday that Eskom sent out a gazette on 8 August relating to this licence, with the public comment deadline set for 29 August, in five days’ time. It said it believed the release of the gazette was “a dubious move”, as no one informed anyone it was going out. However, chief nuclear officer at Eskom David Nicholls told Fin24 on Wednesday this was part of the NNR application and is separate to the IEA process.
Outa – which was behind the e-tolls protest and is now taking on the alleged mismanagement of SAA and Eskom – believes Eskom was trying to sneak the nuclear gazette past the public.
This was similar to the response when the RFP gazette was released a few days before Christmas in 2015 and which could have gone unnoticed for a lot longer had Fin24 not revealed its existence.
Surreptitious slip
“Eskom surreptitiously slipped under the public participation radar a critical gazette regarding nuclear procurement, which would have enabled them to acquire licenses to build two new nuclear plants without proper public scrutiny,” Outa said on Tuesday.
“The NNR and Eskom are attempting to license new nuclear construction sites by hiding the notice in the Eastern Cape Provincial Gazette (rather than the National Gazette) and shortening the deadline to below the 30 days, as required by law,” Outa alleged.
“This move negates the spirit and constitutional rights for the public to participate in decisions that affect them,” it said. “Outa believes that this covert move occurred because the players thought if the public did not notice, they could slip the gazette through unchallenged.”
Outa said it has prepared a participation portal and made it easy for the public to submit comments on this Gazette. Click here.
“As Outa had learned with the e-toll matter, it’s extremely important for society to act at certain stages of legislated participation,” it said. “The moment for comment on the controversial nuclear matter is now, and it is crucial that as many members of the public as possible submit a comment as an interested and affected party.
Update: Eskom said in a statement on Wednesday that it takes exception to Outa's "misinformed campaign".
"Eskom has complied with the process of the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) in its application for the Nuclear Installation Site Licence (NISL) in Thyspunt (Eastern Cape) and Duynesfontein (Western Cape)," it said.
"The NNR announced on 28 July 2016 that it had completed its initial review of the NISL applications that had been submitted to it by Eskom on 10 March 2016. The NNR announced that it had found both applications to be compliant with relevant national policies as well as the NNR Act and associated regulations and has accepted the applications for further processing," said Eskom.
"The first phase of the NNR’s public participation process requires Eskom as the applicant to inform the public and solicit comment on the NISL application. On 29 June 2016, the NNR directed Eskom to begin the process to inform interested and affected parties. To this end, on 22 July Eskom started the process of informing persons, bodies, organisations, local authorities and municipalities, as prescribed by the NNR and published notices about its application in isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English in Provincial Gazettes and newspapers in and around the two areas. The notices requested interested and affected people to send their comments to the NNR by 29 August 2016. These dates are well within the period of 30 days that is prescribed in the National Nuclear Regulator Act (NNR Act).
"The notices mentioned Eskom’s intention to construct and operate multiple nuclear installations (power reactors) and associated auxiliary nuclear installations of a plant type and technology not yet identified.
"The second phase entails deeper engagement in the form of a formal public hearings process pursuant to the provisions of Section 21 (4) (b) of the NNR Act. During this process, Eskom is required to develop a Public Information Document (PID) in accordance with the NNR’s requirements which will be used by stakeholders to make in depth representations during the NNR’s public hearings process.
"The Eskom Board provided its support in September 2015 to continue critical nuclear programme development activities. Eskom received correspondence from the Department of Energy (DoE) in December 2015, including a Section 34 determination under the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006, reconfirming its role as owner and operator of the 9 600 MW new build nuclear fleet. The DoE was endorsed as the procuring agency in terms of the Section 34 determination gazetted on 21 December 2015. Eskom is working with the DoE to define its responsibilities during the procurement process."
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