Page 25 - Energize February 2021

VIEWS AND OPINION

R16,2-billion liability shown on Eskom’s When questioned whether the R16,2-billion liability reflected on Eskom’s balance sheet for
2020/21 balance sheet, some R8-billion is decommissioning, long-term storage and disposal of high-level waste, and construction and
Eskom’s estimated liability for Koeberg’s operation of a final repository, the spokesman for the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR),
decommissioning, and disposal of low- Gino Moonsamy responded:
and intermediate-level nuclear waste at
the existing Vaalputs repository. “Whilst Eskom makes financial provisioning for decommissioning in its annual
The balance of R8,2-billion is Eskom’s financial statements, the NNR is currently reviewing all relevant provisions for
estimated liability for long-term storage of decommissioning. The NNR is engaging Eskom in this regard…”, and “The NNR is
spent fuel on site, for a centralised interim reviewing the regulatory framework including conditions of authorisation with a view
storage facility, and for developing, to strengthening conditions relating to decommissioning.”
constructing, and operating a deep
geological final repository for high-level Eskom has confirmed that provision for future decommissioning, waste storage and
spent fuel waste from Koeberg, plus disposal is built into and forms an integral part of the internal transfer pricing (rand per
associated transport costs. kWh) of electricity generated by Koeberg into the Eskom grid. As such, these provisions
However, based on international are therefore ultimately recovered from customers via Eskom’s Nersa approved
benchmarks, it seems that Eskom, as the electricity tariffs.
operator, has significantly underestimated Carolissen also indicates that in due course, once the Radioactive Waste Disposal Fund
its liabilities for decommissioning and is set up, Eskom and Necsa will have to discharge their decommissioning, waste disposal
disposal of high-level nuclear waste from and final repository liabilities, by paying real money into the Fund.
its Koeberg nuclear power station. However, as indicated above, the problem is that Eskom and Necsa have no ringfenced
In Germany, provisions made for funds set aside for this purpose. Both companies are technically insolvent and not going
nuclear decommissioning and waste concerns, and only continue operations through regular ongoing bailouts by taxpayers via
disposal by the big four utilities range the sole shareholder, the state.
from €1300 per kW of installed capacity
at RWE, to €1700 per kW at EnBW, Questions we should therefore be asking of government, DMRE, NNR, Nersa, NRWDI,
€1800 per kW at E.ON, and €2000 per Necsa, Eskom and the South African nuclear sector are:
kW at Vattenfall. • Who should be bear the cost of nuclear plant decommissioning and long-term storage
Based on the above, one may have and disposal of high-level nuclear waste – the polluter, the customer, or the taxpayer?
expected that Eskom would have set • Where are the real asset-based funds set aside within Eskom and Necsa for future
aside funds for high-level nuclear waste decommissioning and long-term storage and disposal of high-level nuclear waste?
disposal and decommissioning of the • Does the “polluter pays” principle apply in practice, or will the customer and taxpayer
1800 MW Koeberg nuclear power station end up paying twice through government bailouts at the end of the day?
of somewhere between €2,34-billion and
€3,6-billion i.e. between R42-billion and One can only guess who may end up bearing the real decommissioning, high-level waste
R64-billion (using an exchange rate of €1 storage, disposal, and final repository costs in due course – perhaps not the polluter at all,
= R17,80), instead of only R8-billion. but our children's children as taxpayers in the next generation. n
An article in energypost.eu indicates
that EDF in France makes provision of Send your comments to rogerl@nowmedia.co.za
€300 per kW of installed nuclear capacity
for decommissioning, Germany provides
Koeberg nuclear power station
€1400 per kW, and the UK provides
€2700 per kW. Eskom’s liability for
decommissioning and disposal of high-
level spent fuel waste from Koeberg, on
the other hand, amounts to only €250 per
kW of installed nuclear capacity.

The French National Assembly
Commission has found that the clean-up
of French reactors will take longer, be
more challenging and cost much more
than EDF anticipates, and the Commission
is quoted as saying:
“Other countries have embarked on
the dismantling of their power plants,
and the feedback we have generally
contradicts EDF’s optimism about
both the financial and technical
aspects of decommissioning”.

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