Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom has revealed that it has expanded its target market to include the private sector for its nuclear electricity programme.
Ryan Collyer, the chief executive of Rosatom Central and Southern Africa, said this during an interview with Sunday World on the sidelines of World Atomic Week in Moscow on Friday. He said the state-owned entity wanted to achieve its ambition by deploying floating power units, which are small power stations based on barges.
Rosatom’s first of these small power plants was the Akademik Lomonosov in Pevek, Russia’s Arctic port town.
The event, which also commemorates the world’s largest country’s 80th anniversary in nuclear development, was attended by thousands of delegates from across the globe.
Collyer’s comment comes as South Africa’s government, which was Rosatom’s primary target market in nuclear power station development, is struggling to get the project off the ground.
In 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that private individuals were allowed to build power stations of any size.
Said Collyer: “We are looking at the floating power units from a slightly different direction in South Africa.
“We are also seeing that this solution can be delivered directly to large industries and municipalities. And we have continued with our discussion with various stakeholders in South Africa, but we really are approaching it from a commercial and direct off-take perspective at this point, and we are making very good traction on that front,” he said.
Collyer explained that the target market was any industrial complex, smelter, mine, and whoever requires green energy base load. “We have a solution that is perfect for industrial use because nuclear is a green-based load with a very high-capacity factor, and that’s really what they require,” he said.
South Africa has one nuclear power station located in Koeberg, Western Cape.
Nuclear energy analyst Prince Mthombeni told Sunday World: “Nuclear is here to address most of the challenges that we have: energy poverty and food security. When some of you have nuclear, this means you won’t need diesel or coal power stations.”
Mthombeni, the founder of Africa for Nuclear, an advocacy campaign promoting the adoption of the atomic energy source, said another issue was that nuclear energy conversations in South Africa were clouded by politics instead of arguments relating to cost-benefit analysis.
Last year, Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa withdrew plans to procure 2 500MW of nuclear power following a high court order. The plan published in January 2024 was withdrawn due to lack of public participation.
“The minister said he will start the [nuclear procurement process] from scratch and do things correctly. We are still waiting for the minister to now announce if he has started the public participation process.
“But then again, we are talking about government processes here. The minister cannot rush processes because he cannot do things alone. He needs the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, which has recently reissued the Duynefontein with an environmental impact assessment authorisation, which was issued five years ago, and the anti-nuclear lobby groups took the government to court, saying they didn’t do the public participation process…”
Eskom received the environmental authorisation to go ahead with the building of the 4 000MW power station in Duynefontein, close to Koeberg.
Sibanyoni’s trip to Russia was sponsored by Rosatom.
