South Africa goes for nuclear power

David Cherry and Ramasimong Phillip Tsokolibane: South African President Jacob Zuma and his cabinet are now determined to build new nuclear power plants to generate an additional 9600 megawatts (9.6 gigawatts) of electric power. South Africa currently has the only nuclear power plant on the African continent—at Koeberg, 20 miles north of Cape Town—which provides 1800 MW, or about 5% of the country’s power. It was commissioned in 1984. The decision to build more nuclear power plants is historic, both for South Africa and Africa as a whole, because nuclear power is the indispensable successor to fossil fuels. It is no coincidence that it comes at the moment of the founding of the New Development Bank by the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. (All of the BRICS nations have nuclear power, and all are building more.)