Programme Director;
Senior Leaders of the Department and its Entities, including the ADG, and CEOs
Esteemed leaders of the nuclear industry,
The Leadership of the Labour movement
Distinguished guests, Colleagues, friends,
Members of the Media,
Good morning,
When the first nuclear power station at Obninsk, in what was then the Soviet Union, supplied electricity to a public grid in 1954, it showed that nuclear science could serve an everyday public need. Three years later, South Africa became a founding member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was established to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear technology and put safeguards in place.
Here at home, the Atomic Energy Board, the predecessor of today’s Necsa, built a research capability at Pelindaba. When the SAFARI-1 reactor began operating in 1965, it gave South African scientists a facility in which to conduct their own research. That investment still serves patients today. Pelindaba produces medical isotopes used in hospital scans to help doctors diagnose disease.
Eskom built a different capability at Koeberg. When the two units entered commercial operation in the mid-1980s, South Africa took on the responsibility of operating a nuclear power station and supplying its electricity to the national grid. We have sustained that capability for four decades. How we use that capability matters.
South Africa dismantled its nuclear weapons programme before joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty and opened the former programme to IAEA verification. Through the Treaty of Pelindaba, we helped establish Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone. That history informs how we approach the next phase. We intend to expand the peaceful use of nuclear technology and apply what we have learned to a new generation of investment.
The question before us now is how we deliver that capacity so it strengthens electricity supply, serves consumers at a cost they can afford and leaves South African firms and workers with a greater share of the work.
The Integrated Resource Plan 2025 provides 5,200 MW of new nuclear capacity. Nuclear will form part of South Africa’s future electricity mix. The nuclear procurement will commence in earnest under a section 34 determination in terms of the Electricity Regulation Act. I intend to publish such determination before June 2027, after considering public submissions and completing the consultations and other steps required by law. The procurement that follows will be conducted through a rigorous process in accordance with the law.
Our policy is one of additionality. South Africa needs enough dependable electricity for the economy we intend to build. That means making provision for a manufacturer to expand production, for new investment to connect, and for households to gain access to a service they can afford. An economy with too little capacity pays for that shortage through higher-cost supply and through production and investment that never take place.
Coal and nuclear can operate alongside one another in a diversified system. The Department, working with ESKOM is reviewing the coal fleet on its own merits. Some stations may have a case for longer operation and others will retire. Those decisions have to reflect plant condition, cost and the applicable environmental requirements. The case for adding nuclear is the dependable, low-carbon and cost-effective electricity it can supply over a long operating life. It is part of the capacity we are developing to support growth and diversify supply.
We will be taking this programme to market as other countries expand their nuclear fleets. On 7 November 2026, the IAEA recorded 417 reactors in operation and 78 under construction, representing just over 81 GW of net capacity under construction. The second Nuclear Energy Summit, held in Paris this March, put financing and workforce development on the agenda alongside deployment. For South Africa, the practical consequence is that we will be procuring in a market where other countries are also securing specialised equipment, fuel services and experienced project teams. We must test delivery schedules against the capacity vendors can actually commit to our programme.
Affordability begins by comparing the levelised cost of electricity from each technology alongside the system costs it adds or avoids. Technologies perform different functions in the electricity system. Wind and solar supply electricity when their resources are available. Storage can move some of that supply into hours when it is needed. Nuclear can supply large volumes of dependable, low-carbon electricity throughout the year.
The value of each contribution changes with demand, the other capacity in service and the time at which the system needs it. In South Africa we must compare technologies on the cost of meeting the same demand and reliability requirements. On that basis, nuclear can be among the lower-cost options for dependable supply.
For new nuclear, the cost of capital and the time it takes to build will influence what users ultimately pay. The IAEA’s 2024 financing analysis illustrates the scale. At a 7% cost of capital, construction and interest during construction account for roughly 70% of lifetime generation costs in its example. In South Africa, a delay can increase the interest bill while leaving the system to buy other electricity until the unit is available. Construction finance, procurement terms and the delivery schedule therefore have to be developed together.
The Department will work with Eskom to assess financing structures against their effect on tariffs, Eskom’s balance sheet and any exposure assumed by the state. We will examine the cost of borrowing alongside the risks the contractor is able to carry and the security it provides for its obligations. A financing structure must support the build sequence the country can sustain.
The cost of electricity is felt in household budgets and in the ability of South African firms to compete. Government’s purpose in adding dependable capacity is to ease the cost pressures created by insecure supply and give industry a basis on which to invest. We will judge the commercial arrangements by their contribution to that objective over the life of the programme.
Eskom has submitted its feasibility report on the 5,200 MW programme. The Department is preparing the proposed determination for public participation. We will put the case for the additional capacity before the public and consider submissions on their merits. The Act also requires consultation with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and the Minister of Finance before a determination is made. Publication of the determination is the statutory trigger for procurement. The National Nuclear Regulator will exercise its independent authority over safety and licensing.
The Nuclear Energy Policy designates Eskom as the owner and operator of nuclear power plants and provides for Eskom to retain control under a public-private partnership. This places the responsibility on Eskom to specify the plant, evaluate offers, oversee construction and take the units into operation. It must develop and retain the engineering and commercial competence to control changes to the project and hold contractors to their obligations.
The Department will use the IAEA’s milestones approach to organise its oversight of readiness before the programme advances. We will assess whether Eskom has the capacity to act as an informed owner, whether the commercial work is mature enough to take to market and whether the organisations responsible for the programme have the people to carry it through. Those assessments must inform the order in which commitments are made.
Small modular reactors have a distinct place in the technology work. The applications in the sector’s work include industrial process heat and electricity supply to smaller systems. For South Africa, the first question is which industrial users have a heat or power requirement that can support a project of that scale. Smaller units can spread capital commitments over time. The expected savings from factory production depend on repeat orders and a supply chain that can deliver them.
We will assess the economics of the first units separately from those assumed for a mature production line and establish the licensing and fuel requirements for the designs under consideration.
The Department is taking forward the socio-economic impact and cost-benefit study that will inform the Nuclear Industrialisation Plan. I expect that work to identify the procurement packages that can sustain South African production, the firms already able to compete and the capabilities we must develop before tenders are issued. A firm preparing to manufacture a nuclear-grade component needs the specification, time to qualify its production process and enough visibility of future work to justify investment. Government has to organise the programme so that firms can make those decisions before contracts are awarded.
We have taken a firm policy position that directs Eskom and the Department’s entities to build measurable industrial and transformation outcomes into procurement design, bid evaluation and contract management. For each procurement package, we will define the scope and estimated value of the work that South African firms can undertake.
We will track the value of work carried out in South Africa, the contracts awarded to black industrialists, youth and women-owned firms, the suppliers that meet nuclear qualification requirements and the number of artisans, technicians and engineers who complete their training.
We will measure training through supervised experience and recognised competence. Eskom and the Department must be able to track awards and delivery against those indicators, including the work firms retain during operation and maintenance. The standards of nuclear safety and quality will govern all of that work.
South Africa’s mineral and scientific base gives us a further consideration to make about the fuel cycle. The 2026 uranium review by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the IAEA finds that known resources can support global nuclear growth, provided investment is made in exploration and mine development. South Africa has identified uranium resources. Our task is to establish what it would take to turn those resources into a competitive contribution to the fuel cycle.
The commercial task is to determine which stages we can undertake competitively and which services we should secure through supply arrangements. The decision to retain the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme in state hands, with the transfer from Eskom to Necsa being taken forward, preserves a base in reactor engineering and coated-particle fuel research. We will use that capability to examine the industrial opportunities that particular reactor and fuel designs present.
These are decisions about where the country retains economic value over decades. The work we commission through the programme must leave South African firms with customers, qualified people and capabilities they can use in other markets.
At Pelindaba, the immediate task is to protect continuity in a service South Africa already provides. Cabinet approved the Multi-Purpose Reactor to succeed SAFARI-1. Necsa must manage that transition around the continuity of isotope supply and the preparation of the people who will operate the new reactor. The transition plan must account for the needs of hospitals and other customers and for the research and training time the facility will provide. Those are outcomes against which the Department will assess delivery of the project.
The National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute is preparing a Centralised Interim Storage Facility for spent nuclear fuel. It has invited bids for an owner’s engineer. This work is distinct from the management of low-level waste at Vaalputs. The Department will oversee the work needed to bring the facility through preparation, while the Institute and waste generators establish how the costs of storage and eventual disposal will be provided for.
The economics of the new build must include provision for spent fuel management and decommissioning from the start. Those liabilities belong with the programme over its full life.
The public has a stake in each of these decisions. Communities near facilities must be able to understand what is proposed, who is responsible and what the safety regulator will assess. They should have an opportunity to raise concerns early enough to inform the work. Public participation on the determination is part of that responsibility. Engagement on individual sites and facilities will continue through the processes that govern those decisions.
This is also why we have convened nuclear and clean energy in one conference. Eskom’s work on emissions control and efficiency has a direct bearing on decisions about units that continue to operate. Its hydrogen and other research pilots must produce evidence on cost, performance and the conditions for deployment. We need that evidence to decide where a technology can serve the electricity system or support industrial demand. Research becomes valuable to the programme when it gives the country a better basis for its next investment decision.
South Africa has responsibilities and opportunities on the continent. Through the African Commission on Nuclear Energy and our cooperation with African partners, we can put operating experience, regulatory expertise and nuclear science to work beyond our borders. We can develop practical cooperation on operator training, nuclear medicine and radioactive waste management. These are areas where institutions can share capability before countries take decisions on building new power stations.
There is a commercial reason to cooperate as well. A supplier that can serve more than one African programme has a stronger case for investing in the equipment and accreditation required for nuclear work. Cooperation on standards, training and qualification can make that market more accessible to African firms. South African industry should be preparing for that opportunity alongside the work it does to qualify for domestic procurement. Regional electricity cooperation can also widen the options available to countries considering new capacity, through credible arrangements for trading electricity and sharing reserves.
I want the work of this conference to help us prepare for procurement. Eskom must identify the decisions it needs to make as owner before it seeks offers. Financiers must show the terms on which they will fund construction and the risks they can carry. Industry must identify the packages South African suppliers can deliver, the investment required to qualify for them and the time that work will take. The Department will use those contributions in its work on programme preparation and the Nuclear Industrialisation Plan.
The public must be able to follow how this programme advances. We will report what has been decided and what remains to be done at each stage. The Department’s immediate responsibility is to take the proposed determination through public participation and the required consultations. Eskom’s responsibility is to prepare for procurement as the owner and operator. The institutions responsible for research, regulation and waste management have work that must advance alongside it.
In his Nobel lecture, the French physicist and radioactivity pioneer Pierre Curie spoke about the medical uses of radium and the harm it could cause. He believed that “mankind will derive more good than harm from the new discoveries.” South Africa’s own experience gives that belief a practical meaning. At Pelindaba, nuclear science helps doctors diagnose disease. At Koeberg, it has supplied electricity to the country for four decades. Both depend on people and institutions capable of using that knowledge safely and in the public interest.
That is the responsibility government takes on with the new nuclear programme. The decisions taken before construction begins will determine what electricity users pay and how much of the industrial work South Africa retains. Government will use procurement to build domestic capability so that more South African firms can qualify for nuclear work and more of our people can gain the experience to carry it out. The electricity the programme produces must help ease the cost pressures on households and give industry the reliable supply it needs to expand production and create jobs.
Let me thank the Department and Eskom for convening us, and to the delegates and leadership of the Nuclear Industry for joining us.
The South African Nuclear and Clean Energy Conference is hereby declared open.
Thank you.
