Cape Town - Fin24 spoke to Antoine Menager, EDF's site manager at the construction of a nuclear plant at Flamanville in France.
According to Menager, the reactor under construction is a generation 3 type. "It is important to achieve good quality work and that is my duty on the site. The building would be able to resist an earthquake, for instance, and even something crashing onto it," he said.
The layout and feedback system is, for instance, optimised. Menager said all nuclear plants in France are assessed with a big safety margin, taking into account factors such as rising sea levels for the next 60 years.
His advice for the SA government is to rather go for experience than experimentation when it comes to nuclear reactors.
"There is a learning curve. For instance, if you build the same type of building a second time, you will build it much faster," said Menager.
He added that there is community buy-in for the project at Flamanville as more than 50% of the jobs on site are local workers.
WATCH: Matthew le Cordeur speaks to Antoine Menager