Uranium madness hits parliament

MPs told about profitability of uranium enrichment

PARLIAMENT – Building a uranium enrichment plant can cost up to R20 billion, but once it is operating the profits are big, minerals and energy department chief director nuclear energy, Tseliso Maqubela, told MPs on Wednesday.

Briefing members of Parliament’s minerals and energy portfolio committee on South Africa’s draft nuclear energy policy and strategy, approved by Cabinet earlier this month, he said the beneficiation of uranium had been identified as having “huge potential”.

“We are proposing that in line with government’s beneficiation programme, uranium must also be beneficiated, and here we are particularly saying including the enrichment of uranium for peaceful purposes. We cannot shy away from that.

“That is because to make fuel, you need enriched uranium. It would be better for us to actually have that capability as a country.

“Our first preference... would be to do this with international partners. of course, if we don’t succeed in this, we will have to develop our own capabilities. We are saying, we're ready for partners, but if they don’t come, we're going to have to do the beneficiation ourselves,” he said.

Uranium enrichment was a very attractive business, with profit margins of more than 50 percent.

“But of course you need to have invested in the technology upfront,” he said.

Maqubela said a new era of investment in energy infrastructure had arrived, and nuclear energy was set to “form an integral part of South Africa’s future diversified electricity generation mix”.

He noted there was an “abundance” of uranium in South Africa and other countries on the continent.

“Africa needs to benefit from this... not just by selling ore or concentrate.”

The nuclear energy sector was growing internationally, and South Africa needed to tap into the market.

“We must position South African industry to play in that space... we need to identify areas where we have a competitive edge,” Maqubela said.

His colleague in the department, senior nuclear specialist Schalk de Waal, said up to 95 percent of the high-level waste from South Africa’s nuclear reactors could be recycled and re-used as fuel. –Sapa

Source: http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=46290,1,22