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"Titus Mathe?said . . . “Other possible options are limited. Battery storage is extremely expensive and the country currently cannot afford to implement this technology at a large scale. Hydropower can take around 15 years to develop . . . "?? Of course, nuclear can also be very expensive (especially to the taxpayer) and typically takes even longer.

"The trading environment favours products from low-carbon economies and Europe is imposing charges based on carbon content,” said Eskom Group Executive for Distribution?Monde Bala." ? Indeed! Most important!

"Nuclear energy provides a solution that can be retrofitted into existing power plants using modular reactors. “South Africa has been a leading country in modular reactor technology, which is a precursor to small modular reactors that countries such as China are using,” said?Vikesh Rajpaul, Eskom GM. “This is far safer than water-cooled reactor technology and does not require access to water, which makes it a key tech option for repurposing coal-fired power stations. It can use existing infrastructure, including transmission infrastructure."

According to , "There are more than 80??under development in 19 countries" (none at present in SA).? And the only countries that have commercially operated modular reactors are Russia (a single floating plant with two tiny reactors) and China (pebble bed reactors).? And both of these have had abysmal availability factors.? Concerning the Chinese HTR-PM, the authoritative 2023 WNISR says, “Between January and December 2022, the reactors operated for only 27 hours out of a possible maximum of 8,760 hours. A mere 0.03% availability factor for the year 2022.? In the subsequent three months, they seem to have operated at a load factor of around 10 percent.”