South Africa: Why the IAEA Director General's Visit to South Africa Matters
From 7-10 February, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, was in South Africa to meet several government ministers and undertake site visits to various facilities that use nuclear material for peaceful purposes, such as the Koeberg nuclear power plant outside Cape Town and South Africa's first nuclear reactor - the SAFARI-1 research reactor at Pelindaba.
In 2009, supported largely by industrialised nations, Amano was elected IAEA Director General, defeating South Africa's Abdul Minty in six rounds of heavily contested voting.
While relatively low key, his visit was significant, coming as it did a week after heated public debate around the Electricity Supply Commission's (Eskom) application for electricity tariff increases.
South Africa's electricity generation capacity has, in recent years, been inadequate to meet the country's demand and much criticism has been levelled at government regarding the electricity supply shortfalls that have affected the country.
In addition, Amano's visit came at the end of a two-week extensive assessment by the IAEA of South Africa's Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR). According to Nelisiwe Magubane, Director General of South Africa's Department of Energy, the INIR mission was the first to a country that is already generating nuclear power, and the first in Africa.
INIRs provide IAEA member states with an opportunity for in-depth discussions with international experts about their experiences and best practices.
The review evaluated the country's readiness to start purchasing, constructing and operating nuclear power plants. It draws on an evidence-based questionnaire covering 19 key nuclear issues, from funding and financing to security and waste management. The Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant currently generates five per cent of the country's electricity.
Speaking at an ISS-hosted lecture, Amano praised South Africa's transparent approach and welcomed government's engagement with civil society and all stakeholders in its quest to expand its nuclear power programme. The use of nuclear energy for electricity generation has been promoted as an important means to mitigate the impact of climate change.
However, the so-called nuclear energy revival has recently taken a knock following the nuclear incident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in March 2011, which has been described as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.