6 Aug (NucNet): Russian state nuclear fuel cycle company Techsnabexport yesterday signed a long-term agreement for the supply of enriched uranium to South Africa following trade talks between Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and president of South Africa Jacob Zuma in Moscow.
The 10-year agreement between Techsnabexport and South African state utility Eskom, owner of South Africa’s only nuclear power plant, Koeberg, foresees the delivery of enriched uranium to South Africa starting in 2011.
Eskom told NucNet today that the contract covers the supply of a portion of Koeberg’s enriched uranium requirement for the period from 2011 to 2017. For its operation Koeberg requires nuclear fuel elements fabricated with LEU. The enrichment level is less than 5 percent.
Techsnabexport – known as Tenex – is the export subsidiary for nuclear-fuel-cycle products of Atomenergoprom, a company controlled by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
This is not the first time Tenex has supplied enriched uranium to Eskom. The first contract between Tenex and Eskom for enriched uranium was signed in August 1995 and the second in October 2004. The contract signed yesterday is the third between the two organisations.
An Eskom spokesman said that although South Africa produces natural uranium, no local capacity exists there to produce enriched uranium or to fabricate nuclear fuel elements.
Sergei Kiriyenko, Rosatom’s director-general, said in a press statement that Rosatom’s “market share (in enriched uranium products) in South Africa will rise”.
Mr Kiriyenko also indicated that Russia would be ready to be involved in future new build in South Africa.
According to Rosatom, the uranium agreement will allow Russia to hold 45 percent of the South African market for enriched uranium by 2018.
Koeberg, to the north of Cape Town, has two 900-megawatt pressurised water reactors producing about 5.3 percent of the country’s electricity.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
South Africa Ready To Set New Build Process In Motion (Insider No. 8, 19 July 2010)
