South Africa’s first new nuclear reactor could start working by 2036, Eskom group chief executive Dan Marokane said on Tuesday. He spoke at the Nuclear and Clean Energy Conference in Irene, Pretoria.
Marokane confirmed that two sites had been selected for the 5.2GW nuclear build programme. They are Duynefontein, next to Koeberg in the Western Cape, and Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape.
“We’re working on roughly a 10-year timeline, so potentially by 2036 the first reactor could come online,” Marokane said. Energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said it would take at least seven to 10 years.
Ramokgopa opened the conference and set out how the government plans to take the programme to market. He said the government would publish a position paper that sets out the “case for nuclear”. It will come out with the proposed section 34 determination under the Electricity Regulation Act.
At a media briefing afterwards, Ramokgopa said the paper would be published at the end of November. The public will have 60 days to comment. He said he was aiming for a determination in April 2027.
The minister said he expects court challenges. “We are going to build nuclear in this country. Take us to court,” he said.
Ramokgopa said the position paper is “anchored on science and evidence”. He said it draws on experience in other countries and on Koeberg’s 40 years of operation. He said the extra step would add four to six months to the programme.
In August 2024, Ramokgopa withdrew a ministerial determination for 2.5GW of new nuclear capacity. That followed a legal challenge by the DA. Two non-governmental organisations had also gone to court. The DA has since joined the government of national unity.
The 5.2GW is provided for in the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan. Ramokgopa said it is the first phase of a plan he wants to grow. “To be able to build our energy future on the back of nuclear, we will need to expand to 10GW,” he told reporters.
Eskom has not said how the 5.2GW will be divided between the two sites. In August 2025, then environment minister Dion George upheld an environmental authorisation for a 4GW plant at Duynefontein. At Thyspunt, the environmental process covers a station of up to 5.2GW.
Thyspunt has provisional Grade I heritage protection from the South African Heritage Resources Agency until 1 February 2027. That protection can be renewed. Makoma Lekalakala, director of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, has said Thyspunt is not a suitable place for a nuclear facility, Green Building Africa reported.
Ramokgopa said nuclear plants would stay in state hands, including small modular reactors. “Eskom is 100% owned by the state. So, by definition, the state remains the sole owner and operator of nuclear in this country,” he said.
Funding could still involve private companies. In a parliamentary reply, Ramokgopa said planners are looking at funding options that “could include private-sector participation”. In May, Eskom said it was proposing 4.8GW from conventional pressurised water reactors and 400MW from small modular reactors.
The cost of the programme is not yet known. In the same reply, Ramokgopa said funding and risk allocation had not been finalised. He said the effect on electricity tariffs “has not yet been finally determined”.
The minister also admitted a skills gap. “One of the biggest inherent risks in this programme is that we have not built a nuclear power plant in the past 50 years or so,” he said.
The government is reviving the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, which was halted in 2010. It is being moved from Eskom to the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation. Marokane said the corporation is talking to partners about building a pilot plant for a small modular reactor.
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Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.