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South Africa aiming to add 2,500 MW of nuclear capacity

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Trump has criticised South Africa and suspended aid

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Analysts say rift risks scuppering strategic nuclear pact

By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - South Africa could turn to

Russia or Iran to expand its civilian nuclear power capacity, a

senior government minister said, a stance analysts say could

deepen a rift with the United States and further delay the

renewal of a strategic energy pact.

South Africa, which operates Africa's only nuclear power

plant, Koeberg, plans to add 2,500 megawatts of new capacity to

tackle electricity outages that have plagued the economy and to

reduce emissions.

"We can't have a contract that says Iran or Russia must not

bid, we can't have that condition," Minister of Mineral and

Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe, one of the government's

leading proponents of expanding nuclear capacity, said.

"If they are the best in terms of the offer on the table,

we'll take any (country)," he told Reuters.

The country is under scrutiny from Washington after

President Donald Trump issued a far-reaching executive order

this month halting aid. Among other criticisms, the order

claimed - without providing evidence - that South Africa was

"reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial,

military, and nuclear arrangements".

Pretoria has no bilateral cooperation with Iran on nuclear

power or any nuclear-related technology, the office of South

African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson did not comment on the

possibility of Iran or Russia helping South Africa expand its

civilian nuclear capacity.

A South African tender for nuclear projects, initially

planned for last year, has been delayed for further consultation

following legal challenges led by the then opposition Democratic

Alliance party, now part of the coalition government.

ALMOST A DECADE OF TALKS

Pretoria and Washington had been seeking to conclude after

almost a decade of talks a new civilian nuclear pact, known as a

Section 123 Agreement, a prerequisite for exporting U.S.-made

nuclear fuel or equipment.

"The allegations made in the executive order can

significantly complicate getting the agreement renewed," said

Isabel Bosman, a nuclear energy researcher at the South African

Institute of International Affairs.

The State Department spokesperson did not comment on whether

Trump's executive order would affect talks between the two

countries.

The previous 123 agreement, implemented in 1997, lapsed in

December 2022.

Negotiations for a new agreement have already been finalised

at a technical level but nothing is signed yet as legal

processes on both sides were incomplete, Zizamele Mbambo, a

senior official in South Africa's energy ministry said.

"As far as we know both sides remain firmly committed to

conclude this new agreement," he added.

Failure to secure a new deal could block South African power

utility Eskom from sourcing reactor fuel from Westinghouse for

Unit 1 at Koeberg, industry analysts say. Unit 2 is supplied by

France's Framatome.

It may also hinder U.S. companies, such as the Bill

Gates-backed TerraPower and ASP Isotopes ( ASPI ), from

investing in South Africa during a global atomic renaissance,

the analysts added.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; additional reporting by Timothy

Gardner in Washington; editing by Joe Bavier and Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)