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SAfrican power firm abandons nuclear plant plans
Johannesburg (AFP) Dec 5, 2008 South Africa's state-run power utility firm Eskom has abandoned plans to invest in a second nuclear plant due to the cost of the project, a company spokesman said on Friday. Eskom decided "not to proceed with the proposed investment in Nuclear-1 project due to the magnitude of the investment," Fani Zulu said. "The two bidders, the EPR consortium led by Areva of France and the N-Powerment consortium led by Westinghouse of the USA, have been informed of this decision of the Eskom Board," he said. Speaking with AFP, Zulu declined to disclose the worth of the project, saying Eskom had signed a confidentiality agreement with the two foreign companies. The project, which was announced in February last year, was expected to commence in 2010 and take between 45 and 60 months to complete. It would have been the country's second nuclear plant and was anticipated to be a 3,500-megawatts pressure water reactor (PWR). Koeberg power station, located in Western Cape Province, is South Africa's only nuclear power station. South Africa is especially keen to prevent any blackouts in 2010, when the country plays host to the football World Cup. Last January, the country suffered widespread blackouts that forced Eskom to ration power and shut down the key mining industry for a week. Eskom last month signed a 500 million dollar (393 mllion euro) loan with the African Development Bank (ADB) to aid its expansion programme. The expansion programme would see capacity increase to 80,000 megawatts by 2020 from the current level of 43,037 megawatts, Eskom said. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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IAEA to issue new report on quake-hit Japan nuclear plant
Vienna (AFP) Dec 5, 2008The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Friday would publish the findings next month of its latest inspection of the world's largest nuclear power station after it was hit by an earthquake in July 2007. |
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