No need for Treasury to finance nuclear - Molefe
21 September 2016
Cape Town – A nuclear build programme for South Africa doesn’t need to be funded by the fiscus. There are enough potential financiers who would be willing to take the risk, said Brian Molefe, Eskom CEO on Wednesday.
Speaking to Fin24 on the sidelines of a parliamentary meeting, Molefe said he doesn’t believe a nuclear build programme would put a significant burden on the fiscus. Molefe said he had not asked National Treasury to consider making provision for any nuclear costs for the medium term.
“It’s possible for nuclear to finance itself. Asking the fiscus for money is going overboard. We should be able to arrange some kind of funding for nuclear energy.”
According to Molefe, a nuclear plant has a life of 80 years – “even if it costs R1 trillion it will have the capability to repay the cost in 15 to 20 years. So you can take the revenues generated from nuclear, ring-fence it and use it for future nuclear activities.”