Hogan: SA needs nuclear

Johannesburg - South Africa sees nuclear playing a key role in meeting growing demand in the continent's biggest economy, which is battling a power crunch, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Barbara Hogan, said on Thursday.

"There is a lot of controversy about nuclear in the world... [but] there can be little doubt now that nuclear is going to play one of the most important components in our energy provisions going forward," she told a conference.

South Africa is one of the global pioneers in developing a power and heat processing plant based on the pebble-fuel technology.

Jaco Kriek, chief executive of the technology firm spearheading the effort, told the conference the first pilot plant to generate 80 megawatts of electricity could come on stream by 2018, with initial costs estimated at R27bn.

- Reuters