Nuclear uncurrents

A little birdie whispered in my ear today. It said that the proposed 30% energy target from IPPs in the medium term is predominantly going to come from privately owned nuclear power. Of course, the government will need to give guarantees to make this work. Thus private corporations will profit while government (i.e. the taxpayer) takes huge risk.

This does not surprise me. Nuclear has been in the news a lot recently:

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/major-nuclear-power-new-build-programme-will-need-hefty-investment-2010-02-15

http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article305215.ece

These articles reveal a figure of 21 GW of new nuclear by 2035, about 30% of our electricity by then, at a cost of around R1 TRILLION, not including any overruns, and not including any of the PBMR white elephants.

Frank