Nuke deal 'not in bag'

The government has made a U-turn on the nuclear deal with Russia, saying the nature of the agreement was not communicated properly.

The acting director-general of the Department of Energy, Wolsey Barnard, said yesterday that there was no procurement deal estimated at R1-trillion, only an "inter-governmental agreement" for the Russians to demonstrate what nuclear technology they had to offer.

But the statement by the department and the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp last week stated clearly that "the signed agreement, besides the actual joint construction of nuclear power plants, provides for comprehensive collaboration in other areas of the nuclear power industry".

In the statement, Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said: "I am sure that co-operation with Russia will allow us to implement our ambitious plans for the creation by 2030 of 9.6GW of new nuclear capacities.

"This agreement opens the door for South Africa to access Russian technologies, funding [and] infrastructure, and provides a platform for future extensive collaboration."

Barnard said yesterday: "There is no procurement deal in place. Russia is not the first country we have signed such an agreement with; we first signed with South Korea and we are looking at signing. with France by the end of [this month]."

Window-shopping agreements would be signed with the US, Japan and China, he said.

According to Barnard, the decision to procure eight nuclear power plants had been taken but the cost could be determined only once the supplier had been chosen.

The "user-pay principle" would apply as a funding model for the project, meaning electricity consumers will foot the bill.