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South Africa seeks to add nuclear capacities in an 'affordable' way

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of South Africa is considering building new nuclear power capacities in an affordable way (i.e. building new reactors at a pace and a price that the country can afford) rather than adopting a large capacity addition programme that would be too expensive to develop. The Ministry is working on the next Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that is being discussed with and could be sent for approval by mid-September 2019. Although the Ministry will push for nuclear development, no timeline has been disclosed so far. 

South Africa had announced plans to develop 9,600 MW of nuclear power capacity by 2030 in its Integrated Resource Plan for 2010-2030 but Eskom's financial difficulties prompted the government to scrap the 9.6 GW nuclear programme in August 2018. South Africa's domestic nuclear capacity currently stands at 1,860 MW - corresponding to the Koeberg power plant - and is expected to remain stable in the upcoming years since no new projects are underway.