The government is forging ahead with its massive nuclear-power building programme - even though it doesn't know how much it will cost. This was the upshot of a briefing yesterday by the deputy director-general for nuclear energy in the Department of Energy, Zizamele Mbambo, who said studies of the proposed nuclear power procurement programme, including the costs and financing model, have confirmed ''that this programme is fundable and will contribute positively to the economy''.The reason for the government being coy about the actual cost of building eight nuclear power reactors, which will produce a total of 9600MW - 23% of our energy needs - by 2030 is that it is still negotiating the price.Despite committing South Africa to the project - which experts say could cost up to R1-trillion (more than the annual tax take of SARS) the government is unable - or unwilling - to specify exactly how it will be funded. The eventual cost might or might not include the inevitable multibillion-rand cost over-runs and production delays that tend to afflict mega-projects - witness the mess at the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power plants.Just how taking on such vast amounts of debt can possibly be beneficial to our ailing economy is not explained. Neither is there a coherent explanation of how this country will make do with its stuttering electricity supply for the next decade or so until the first of the nuclear power stations comes on stream.Just about the only thing we know is that Eskom, which is lurching from crisis to crisis, and which has a funding shortfall in excess of R200-billion, will not be running the nuclear programme.And that, despite South Africa concluding nuclear co-operation agreements with several countries, our Brics partner, Russia, appears likely to get the biggest slice of our nuclear pie...