SA’s nuclear imperative and its challenges In light of the recent Nuclear Forum held during the 2026 Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town from March 3-5, Dr Yves Guenon highlights the critical need and the challenges involved in expanding our nuclear programme in South and Southern Africa.
eration choices, he says that today, France generates electricity with a carbon footprint 10 times smaller than Germany's, despite Germany's strong focus on renewable invest- ments. “As a result, France is attracting a lot more energy-intensive industrial investments, many of these for data centres,” he tells MCA . He cites two key reasons: “First, the avail- ability of experienced engineers, and the second is that France produces clean energy from a mix dominated by its nuclear plants. This is not going to be matched by Germany or South Africa in the near future,” he says, adding that this enables producers in France to sell lower carbon products and more easily avoid global carbon taxes. Highlighting the energy needs of modern data centres, he says that a single large data centre, which must operate 24 hours a day for 360 days per year, will consume the energy equivalent of one entire unit of the Koeberg Power Station. To reduce their carbon foot- print, data centre infrastructure will therefore migrate to countries with strong, stable and clean electrical energy networks.
energy infrastructure by 2042. Alongside a massive expansion of renewables – 34 GW of wind, 25 GW of solar PV and 8.5 GW of battery storage – 16 GW of gas and 5.2 GW of new nuclear capacity are envisaged, projected to account for around 16% of generation capacity when installed. In light of the clean-energy transition, African leaders, policymakers, investors, tech- nology providers and industry experts met at the 15 th Nuclear Forum from March 3-5, 2026, as part of the Africa Energy Indaba, to explore the evolving role of nuclear energy. Nuclear is critical in the energy mix As the world transitions away from fossil fu- els for electricity generation, nuclear power is critical to the energy mix, Guenon says. While supporting renewable energy growth, he notes that intermittent sourcaes cannot sustain the national grid on their own. It will therefore be essential to replace ageing coal- fired plants in South Africa with a solution that offers high energy availability. Citing France and Germany's power gen-
W ith over 30 years of ex- perience in South Africa’s nuclear industry, Dr Yves Guenon is a prominent nu- clear energy expert. Now Chairman of the French South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FSACCI), he was a key player in preparing and negotiating Eskom’s 2008 Nuclear 1 contract for two light-water re- actors for France’s Areva, which collapsed because the South African Treasury saw the R120-billion price tag for the two EPR reac- tors as uncompetitive. He was also instrumental in the success of the multi-year steam generator replacement (SGR) project at Koeberg, which hopes to extend the operational life of our only nuclear power station by a further 20 years. The 2026 Nuclear Forum convened fol- lowing approval of South Africa’s revised Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2025), which proposes investments of R2.23 trillion in
28 ¦ MechChem Africa • March-April 2026
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