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21 February 2007 - South Africa should build a second conventional nuclear power plant instead of investing in more advanced nuclear technology to fix a looming energy crisis, said France's minister of industry according to a recent Reuters report.
Francois Loos said the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) being developed in South Africa was an interesting idea that might not signficantly alter the country's electricity capacity.
South Africa, which experienced nationwide blackouts last month, needs to expand its electricity grid by thousands of megawatts in the coming years to meet growing demand from business and consumers in its fast-growing economy.
It has embarked on a massive multi-billion rand expansion of its nuclear programme, with 24 PBMR plants on the drawing board.
France, however, is encouraging South Africa to embrace so-called "third-generation" nuclear power plants to expand electricity capacity. French firm Areva is bidding to build such a plant, which would be capable of producing 1 300 MW.
"PBMR (pebble bed modular reactor) is piloting at 160 megawatts, so I think the question of capacity is better solved for general purpose of an existing network by bigger capacity," Loos said at the opening of a bilateral nuclear conference.
France has a long history of nuclear cooperation with South Africa and has been helping South African state power utility Eskom on the nuclear front. It shipped part of a reactor to Cape Town last year when South Africa's Koeberg plant was temporarily shut down due to mechanical and maintenance problems.
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