South Africa’s state power company, Eskom, has started an environmental impact assessment EIA for a third NPP. It will form part of the approval for a site for a third nuclear power station at either Thyspunt on the Eastern Cape coast or Bantamsklip on the Overberg coast.
Four months ago, final environmental authorisation was given for the construction of a 4,000 MWe second NPP for South Africa at Duynefontein, which already hosts the current 1,940 MWe Koeberg nuclear facility.
Eskom proposes to build the third 5,200 MWe NPP at either Thyspunt, on the Eastern Cape coast between Cape St Francis and Oyster Bay, or at Bantamsklip, between Pearly Beach and Kleinbaai on the Overberg coast adjacent to Dyer Island.
Both were previously shortlisted as possible sites for the second plant, but Duynefontein was finally selected in 2017. In earlier Eskom impact assessments, there was strong opposition to the use of the sites on environmental, social and heritage grounds.
The Thyspunt site is in the Kouga Local Municipality and Bantamsklip falls under the Overstrand Municipality.
Government’s recently adopted Integrated Resource Plan 2025 calls for the addition of more than 105 GWe of new generation capacity by 2039. This includes government’s Nuclear Industrial Plan, which “aims to resuscitate and localise nuclear energy expertise that has gradually been eroded”.
The first stage of obtaining environmental authorisation began with a virtual public meeting conducted online by Midrand consulting company WSP Group Africa Ltd. WSP project manager Ashlea Strong emphasised that it was a “pre-application” meeting and that the formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) process had not yet started.
She explained that the statutory time frame for approval was “strictly legislated” and “exceptionally tight”. They were working towards environmental authorisation being granted by the national Department of Forestry Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) by February 2027, and for any appeals to be resolved by May 2027.
After the EIA for a third NPP, Eskom also needs to obtain heritage approval, submit a water use licence application, and obtain a coastal waters discharge permit. Eskom must also obtain a nuclear installation site, construction and operating licence from the National Nuclear Regulator. Although running concurrently with the site EIA, this was a stand-alone process with its own public participation requirements.
Eskom has not yet decided on the specific reactor technology for the new plant. There are three options or a combination, which would be assessed during the EIA process.
Specialist studies will include impact assessments of seismic risk, geological hazards, hydrology, the transport and management of radioactive waste, climate change, the 1-in-100 year flood line, air quality, flora, freshwater ecology, marine biology, vertebrate and invertebrate fauna, and heritage and palaeontology, among other potential impacts.
Attendees at the virtual meeting wanted to know what the estimated costs of the project were, how reliable such estimates were, where Eskom would be sourcing funding for the project, and whether South Africa would retain overall ownership of the new facility.
The new application is expected to face strenuous opposition from environmentalists, including the Dyer Island Conservation Trust. Dyer Island is a 20-hectare nature reserve, situated just off the coast, 10km from Bantamsklip.
During the earlier impact assessment that eventually concluded with Duynefontein being selected, the Trust emphasised the unique nature of the area and called for significantly more research before approving any development at Bantamsklip.
“Here we strive to protect the largest surviving colonies of the [critically endangered] African Penguin, the globally important breeding and calving grounds of the endangered southern right whale, and one of the world’s largest populations of the mysterious Great White shark. The proposed [nuclear] site is situated within a habitat that is unique not only to this continent but to the whole world’s ecosystems … The majority of our area’s incredible biodiversity is dependent on this system of constant change which create an upwelling of nutrients which is the driving force of this extensive and complex marine ecosystem.”
In the Eastern Cape, the Thyspunt Alliance environmental group established to oppose construction of a nuclear facility is regrouping. Referring to the group’s “forced Lazarus moment”, spokesperson Trudi Malan-Aucamp said, “I’m sure that we will resurrect the alliance.”
