While Eskom’s uranium consumption would amount to 330 tone per year for 2008, this is expected to rise to 4 000 tons per year by 2025, on the back of its planned additional 20 000MW of nuclear generation capacity.

Currently only 5-7% of Eskom’s electricity is generated from nuclear fuels at the country’s only nuclear power station, Koeberg, near Cape Town in the Western Cape, which produces 1 800MW of power from its two reactors.

The state-owned power utility plans to construct an additional five nuclear plants by 2025. The first new units should be online by 2015 or the year after, with each power station generating around 3 500M. In all, the new plants would bring the contribution of nuclear power to the energy mix to about 25%.