South Africa's debt burden is onerous, to say the least, and yet a new 2,500MW nuclear build programme has been snuck back onto the table while we were all distracted by the Covid-19 pandemic. What's behind this, when the alternatives are far more attractive?
Despite recent plans by the government to reignite the nuclear build programme, framed in their renewed request for information (RFI) by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe for a 2,500MW new nuclear build programme, it is evident that much research is needed in many fields, from material sciences to safety demonstration, to attain the envisaged goals for safe and economic new or fourth-generation nuclear reactors.
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