Alarm bells ring over multibillion-rand nuclear power station plan for Durban

Durban municipal leaders are hoping to install a giant 940MW nuclear power station in the city as part of a public-private sector partnership plan to reduce the city’s dependence on the Eskom national power grid, eThekwini Municipal Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda announced on Tuesday.

A nuclear plant of this capacity is roughly half the size of Eskom’s 1,940MW Koeberg nuclear power plant, 30km north of Cape Town, which was set up nearly 40 years ago.

Details remain sketchy, but the controversial proposal to build a nuclear plant in Africa’s largest port city is likely to eclipse Kaunda’s announcement that the city hopes to reduce its reliance on the Eskom national grid by 20% by 2025; by 40% by 2030 and ultimately achieve 100% energy independence by 2035.

Opening the Energy Transformation Summit at Durban’s International Convention Centre, Kaunda also announced short-term plans to build a new 400MW coal-fired power station; a new gas import terminal in Durban harbour; a 300MW gas-to-power plant and a smaller 100MW solar PV plant.

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He hoped the new solar and gas plants would be running by 2025 and 2026, respectively. All these proposals formed part of the city’s Municipal Independent Power Producer Procurement (MIPPP) Programme, which aimed to attract around R325-billion in investment by 2035.

On the Durban nuclear proposal, Kaunda said: “In the medium to long term, we are planning to procure an additional 2,600MW of new generation capacity to adequately boost regional transformation. eThekwini Municipality will start new procurement of 50MW waste-to-energy, 300MW offshore wind and 940MW of nuclear power in the new financial year (July 2023).”

There have been whisperings about a Durban-based nuclear power station for some time, with the old Durban International Airport in Prospecton mooted as a possible site.

After his announcement, Our Burning Planet asked the mayor if he was prepared to elaborate on the timelines, funding sources and location of the proposed nuclear power station.

Kaunda did not answer directly, stating that the city’s strategy was to support private businesses through public-private partnerships. He said the city had identified about 30 sites around the city for a variety of new energy investment projects in terms of eThekwini’s MIPPP, which formed part of a government plan to allow municipalities in good financial standing to procure electricity directly from independent power producers.

In response to our repeated question on whether the intention was to locate the proposed new nuclear plant in Durban, Kaunda simply responded: “Yes.”

In his prepared remarks to the energy summit, Kaunda asserted that: “The city’s energy transition policy was subjected to a rigorous process of public participation as informed by Section 17 of the Municipal Systems Act. Therefore, we are proud to share with you that the vision and strategic targets articulated in the energy transformation policy were formulated in consultation with the public.”

‘No consultation with the public’

‘No environmentalists’