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Barnard: Nuclear deal only window shopping

Cape Town - The recent Russian nuclear agreement is merely part of a window shopping exercise to see what technologies are best from a variety of countries and no purchases have been made, 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 which was beamed to Cape Town to assure the public that relevant information about the nuclear build programme would be made public.

When 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 could also be considered by the cabinet and therefore confidentiality issues surround that matter too.

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

Asked if it had been decided to go ahead with providing 9 600 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 Eskom rejected the nuclear power deal in 2008, Barnard said that at the time the power utility was committed to the build and operate principle and this was seen as too expensive. However, circumstances have 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 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 South Africa currently generates 5% of its electricity from nuclear power - from Koeberg at Cape Town.

Government is 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."

Asked whether this commitment to nuclear power contradicts National Development Plan proposals, Barnard 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."

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