South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs has authorised Eskom’s Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for a new nuclear power plant at Duynefontein. The site is next to the existing Koeberg nuclear power station. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project to build a new pressurised water reactor power station of up to 4000 MW, known as Nuclear-1, considers three alternative sites: Bantamsklip, on the Southern Cape coast; Duynefontein, in Western Cape; and Thyspunt, in the Eastern Cape. Of these, Duynefontein and Thyspunt are recognised in the FEIR as environmentally acceptable – Bantamsklip, while acknowledged as a viable site for a nuclear power plant, was excluded from the report as the least favourable of the three. Thyspunt is identified as Eskom’s preferred site. Eskom Chief Nuclear Officer Dave Nicholls said the DEA authorisation was an important milestone in the development process of South Africa’s nuclear programme.
World Nuclear News 13th Oct 2017 read more »
