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CAPE TOWN Feb 28 (Reuters) – South Africa plans to
allocate more funds towards the construction of nuclear power
plants as it aims to boost electricity supply in Africa’s
biggest economy, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday.
South Africa, which runs the only nuclear power plant on the
continent, allocated 300 billion rand ($39.55 billion) for its
nuclear build programme in its budget last week.
“The amount of money that has been allocated as an
indication for the nuclear build, it’s not a thumb suck and we
don’t actually say that is the end amount, but we believe that
it is the beginning,” Peters told reporters.
South Africa’s new energy resource plan, expected to be
signed into law by April, has called for nuclear and renewable
energy to play a bigger role in plugging the country’s power gap
as it seeks to halve its reliance on coal, which supplies 85
percent of the country’s electricity needs.
The country’s power supply is just ahead of demand and
authorities are scrambling to avert a repeat of blackouts in
2008 that hit the key mining sector and cost the economy
billions of dollars.
French utility EDF said earlier in February it
would make a joint bid with a Chinese partner when South Africa
launches a tender to build several nuclear reactors, expected in
the first half of this year.
($1 = 7.5855 South African rand)
(Reporting and writing by Wendell Roelf, editing by Ed
Stoddard)
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