File picture: Supplied File picture: Supplied
Johannesburg - The National Treasury had set aside R200 million to improve the energy mix, including supporting the preparatory work for the nuclear energy build programme, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said yesterday.
“A time will come when the nuclear programme will form part of the budget. We are looking at proposals for how the nuclear build will be funded,” Nene announced at a media conference prior to delivering his mini budget speech.
At the moment, Eskom’s only nuclear power station is the Koeberg station near Cape Town. Koeberg has an installed capacity to generate 1 800 megawatts (MW) of power.
The government wants to build up to 9 600MW of extra nuclear power.
However, it has not explained how it is going to finance the construction of its new nuclear power stations.
It has been estimated that the new nuclear plants could cost as much as R1 trillion to build, but the government has denied this figure.
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