South Africa to look at viability of uranium enrichment - report

Aug 28, 2006, 11:28 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa is looking into the possibility of enriching uranium to boost its ability to provide nuclear energy, according to a report published Monday in which the country's Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica is quoted.

Sonjica announced at the weekend that the southern African nation would undertake a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether enriching uranium - a process also used in the development of nuclear weapons - would be economical, according to the Business Day newspaper.

Nuclear energy would play an important role in fulfilling the world's energy needs, the minister said. She was speaking at the launch of the country's Young Nuclear Professionals Society and indicated that a formal announcement would follow 'soon.'

Sonjica also called on the participation of the mining sector in what she said amounted to the comprehensive development of South Africa's large uranium resources for 'peaceful purposes,' the report said.

Sonjica has mooted a nuclear build programme aimed at, among others, boosting the country's electricity levels by at least 5000 megawatts of nuclear energy through the construction of four to six nuclear reactors.

The country of 47 million people is under pressure to increase its energy capacity has already approved the production of a pebble bed nuclear reactor in this regard.

Koeberg, Africa's only nuclear power station, is situated in the South African city of Cape Town. Technical difficulties at the facility in recent months left much of the city and other parts of the country with frequent power outages.

South Africa enriched uranium and developed nuclear weapons in the 1970s and 1980s but with the fall of the apartheid state, the weapons were destroyed in accordance with international laws on weapons of this nature.

Iran's nuclear programme has raised concern worldwide. South Africa, however, refrained from exerting pressure on this country to cease these activities.

According to the Business Day, a recent visit by the United States' permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency was evidence of growing concern among world powers over South Africa's position on the Iranian programme.