On March 16 - 18, the Nuclear Africa 2016 conference is held in Johannesburg (South Africa).
The conference is attended by Dr. Helmut Engelbrecht, Chairman of the World Nuclear Association; Mikhail Chudakov, Deputy Director General of the IAEA; Phumzile Tshelane, CEO of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa); Knox Msebenzi, Managing Director of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa, as well as other participants. Rosatom's delegation, which included representatives of JSC Rusatom Overseas Inc., the Central Institute for Advanced Training and Rosatom International Network, was headed by Nikolay Drozdov, Director of the International Business Department of ROSATOM.
Participants of the discussion were unanimous in the view that the nuclear power industry would promote further sustainable development of the African continent. A reliable base-load power source will offer additional competitive advantages to the African industry and will enable stronger-than-expected GDP growth.
The conference chairman Dr. Kelvin Kemm, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, pointed out that the NPP construction program in South Africa would open up tremendous opportunities for local producers, which would be able to benefit from NPP construction. According to Dr. Kemm, it is crucial that the South African government should select a foreign strategic partner for this initiative and that this partner should have the necessary experience and expertise and be willing to share its state-of-the-art technological solutions with the Republic of South Africa.
"Construction of an NPP in South Africa will help create 10,000 jobs; it will also generate a profit of USD 48.3 billion for local businesses and bring USD 52.5 billion in tax revenue to the national budget," stated Nikolay Drozdov.
In addition, representatives of ROSATOM gave presentations on the corporation's integrated offer, nuclear education, construction of research reactors and establishment of nuclear technology centers. More specifically, ROSATOM offers its customers an integrated set of services in the sphere of nuclear power development, ranging from preparation for the implementation of an NPP construction project to employee training, NPP operation and UNF management services.
Similarly, ROSATOM offers its customers an integrated approach to construction of research reactors and establishment of research centers. South Africa is currently Africa's leader and ranks among global leaders in terms of production of isotopes for industrial and medical uses. As the Safari-1 research reactor is nearing the end of its operating life, it is necessary to start implementing the project to construct a new multipurpose research reactor in South Africa as soon as possible.