Barnard: Nuclear deal only window shopping

01-10-2014
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Fin24.com
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Cape Town - The recent Russian nuclear agreement was merely part of a window shopping exercise to see what technologies were best from a variety of countries and no purchases had been made, the acting director general of energy Wolsey Barnard said on Wednesday.

Following the public furore over the signing of the framework agreement last month which appeared to give Russia the right to build eight nuclear power stations, he went to great lengths - at a press conference in Pretoria but beamed to Cape Town - to assure the public that relevant information about the nuclear build programme would be made public.

When he was pressed on who would determine what would be kept secret, Barnard chose his words carefully. First there was a technical committee which would determine this, but if it was a nuclear "vendor" country, like Russia, "that would be (the answer to) the who" could keep deals secret.

He said certain details of the nuclear programme may also be considered by the cabinet and therefore there were confidentiality issues surrounding that too.

This could include aspects of the "financial modelling" involved.

Asked if it had been decided to go ahead with providing 9600 megawatts of power from nuclear sources, Barnard appeared to confirm this. But he denied that framework agreements signed - by Russia last month and an upcoming one in France this month - meant that South Africa would automatically procure from them.

South Africa has already signed a framework agreement with South Korea and intends to also draw in China and Japan.

Asked why in 2008 Eskom had rejected the nuclear power deal, Barnard said that at the time Eskom was committed to the build and operate principle and this was seen as too expensive. However, circumstances had changed since then.

It is not envisaged at this point that Eskom would be in charge of the build programme.

Asked what had been President Jacob Zuma's role in the nuclear talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Barnard said the president had been involved in signing bilateral agreements: "That is done by the presidency... we (the technical team) are dealing with technical issues."

Asked where the Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson was today (on Wednesday) and why she was not at the press conference, Barnard said she was attending a cabinet meeting.

In a statement, the energy department said that currently South Africa generated 5% of its electricity from nuclear power - from Koeberg at Cape Town.

Government was committed to adding an additional 9.6 GW of power from nuclear energy. "To achieve this we will commence with the rollout of new nuclear build programme."

When Barnard was asked whether this commitment to nuclear power contradicted the National Development Plan proposals, he said: "The NDP is a document that gives us direction (on) how to turn the country around... it doesn't spell out a blueprint on technology. It shines a torch into a dark night."