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The granting of an environmental authorisation does not exempt an applicant from complying with any other applicable legal requirements or obtaining permits from other competent authorities, said Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
South Africa’s environment minister upheld a previous decision granting environmental authorisation for state-owned power utility Eskom to build and operate a new nuclear power station in Western Cape province.
Environmentalists had appealed against the original 2017 authorisation for a new 4,000-megawatt nuclear power station being built at Duynefontein, close to the Koeberg plant near Cape Town, which is currently the only existing commercial nuclear power plant in Africa.
The granting of an environmental authorisation does not exempt an applicant from complying with any other applicable legal requirements or obtaining permits from other competent authorities, said Dion George, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
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He further said that South Africa regards nuclear power as a critical part of its baseload energy mix as it diversifies away from coal-fired plants that supply the bulk of its electricity needs to more renewable energy sources.
