Programme Director, colleagues from national departments and our public entities, representatives of the National Nuclear Regulator, colleagues from Eskom, the NECSA and the NRWDI, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for joining us for this Nuclear Energy Programme Implementation workshop. We meet at a moment where the policy signal is clear, and the national task is no longer to debate the idea of nuclear energy in the abstract, but to ensure that any nuclear programme is designed and executed in a manner that is safe, lawful, affordable, and credible.
It is useful, at the outset, to locate this workshop in an international frame, because we are not the first country to confront the complexity of organising a nuclear programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency has long emphasised that successful nuclear programmes require a whole of government coordination capability, what it refers to as a Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organization, often abbreviated as NEPIO. The central point is straightforward, nuclear is not delivered by one institution, it is delivered by a coordinated system, aligned to clear policy intent, strong regulation, credible safeguards, capable operators, and coherent public accountability.
In that same international context, it is significant that the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Bank have recently concluded a memorandum of cooperation aimed at strengthening how development finance engages nuclear, with an emphasis on safety, regulatory readiness, safeguards, and the project preparation needed to support credible investment decisions.
This matters for South Africa because it signals that nuclear is re-entering mainstream development finance conversations, provided programmes are disciplined, transparent, and compliant. It also reinforces the policy adjustment reflected in the Integrated Resource Plan 2025 (IRP 2025), which confirms a nuclear allocation in the planning horizon and places an obligation on us to translate policy into practical readiness, including governance, sequencing, and an institutional architecture that can withstand public, regulatory, and investor scrutiny.
I make these references for a specific reason. They reinforce a message we sometimes understate; South Africa is not starting from scratch. We have a historic capability base in the nuclear space that is deeper than many appreciate. We have operated commercial nuclear generation at Koeberg for decades. We have sustained a long-standing research reactor capability through SAFARI 1, which has supported research, skills development, and the production of medical radioisotopes. We have built institutions and legislative frameworks that govern nuclear safety, security, and safeguards, and we have maintained international standing through compliance with non-proliferation and safeguards obligations. That is a foundation. It does not remove the work ahead, but it does mean we are not building a capability from zero. We are building from an existing platform, and we are responsible for strengthening it.
If we sketch a brief timeline, it helps to see that platform clearly. South Africa’s nuclear pathway begins in the mid twentieth century with uranium extraction and the building of scientific and technical capacity. In the mid 1960s, the SAFARI 1 research reactor came into operation, anchoring a national base for nuclear science, materials testing, and radioisotope production. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Koeberg was developed and commissioned, embedding commercial nuclear generation into our electricity system.
In the democratic era, South Africa strengthened governance, modernised institutions, and reaffirmed its international posture on safeguards and non-proliferation. Over time, we expanded the nuclear application footprint beyond electricity, including nuclear medicine, industrial irradiation, research and development, and the long-term management of radioactive waste through dedicated institutional mandates. That is the arc we inherit.
This historical capability matters because it confirms that nuclear, for South Africa, has always been more than megawatts. It is a system, and it is a knowledge economy capability. It is a platform for research, for industrial applications, for medical services that save lives, for skills development, and for technologies that support modern industry. If we treat nuclear as only a generation discussion, we will underinvest in the capabilities that make any nuclear programme credible and developmental.
That brings me to the role of the Department of Electricity and Energy. The Department is the custodian of nuclear energy policy. We carry the responsibility to provide direction on the strategic intent of the programme, how it aligns with national planning, and how it advances South Africa’s development objectives. We also carry a core responsibility in the national nuclear safeguards system. That means we must ensure that the programme across institutions and across the value chain remains aligned with our legislative obligations and international commitments relating to safety, security, and safeguards. In practice, our role is to anchor coherence, ensure that mandates are respected, and ensure that the programme is governed in the public interest.
This is why we have convened this workshop. Implementation readiness is not measured by the number of studies we commission or the number of presentations we deliver. It is measured by whether we can answer, with clarity and discipline, the questions that determine delivery. What decisions must be taken, in what sequence, by whom, under which legal instruments, with which safety and safeguards prerequisites, and with what governance arrangements to prevent ambiguity and drift.
There are three pillars that must shape the content of this workshop and the outcomes we produce.
The first pillar is programme deliverables and sequencing. The nuclear strategy work must be translated into an implementable programme architecture, with defined deliverables, phased decision gates, and realistic timelines. This includes decisions on existing assets and sustained safe operation, readiness for new capacity within national planning horizons, and the strengthening of the supporting ecosystem that makes nuclear viable, regulation, skills, fuel and materials considerations, and waste management pathways. A nuclear programme succeeds when it is phased, modular, and governed through clear stages. It fails when it becomes monolithic, when scope expands without control, or when institutional roles blur.
The second pillar is nuclear research, innovation, and applied capability. Nuclear research is not an academic side note; it is a cornerstone of national capability. It is how we sustain skills, build technical depth, and generate practical applications that support industrial development and public services. This is where the work at Necsa is central, including the development pathway toward the new generation multi-Purpose reactor programme. The multi-Purpose reactor is not only about replacing ageing research infrastructure. It is about ensuring that South Africa retains a strategic platform for radioisotope production for healthcare, for example diagnostics and cancer treatment, and for industrial applications such as irradiation, materials testing, and advanced manufacturing related research. It is also about enabling research partnerships, training pipelines, and a domestic capability base that strengthens resilience and reduces dependence.
The third pillar is industrial capability and the development of a nuclear industrial base. If South Africa is serious about nuclear as a strategic capability, then we must be serious about the industrial ecosystem that supports it. Industrial capability is created through sustained procurement discipline, quality assurance, realistic localisation pathways, and a skills system that matches the programme sequence.
It includes nuclear engineering services, maintenance and refurbishment supply chains, component manufacturing where feasible, instrumentation and control capability, and specialised construction and project management capacity. It also includes leveraging nuclear science applications for industrial competitiveness, particularly medical isotope value chains and industrial irradiation services.
Across these pillars, safeguards and safety sit as the foundation. They are not a compliance checklist. They are the conditions for legitimacy and credibility. The independence and authority of the regulator must be respected without qualification. Waste and spent fuel considerations must be integrated from the outset, not postponed. If we are not honest and rigorous on these matters, we will not be credible, and we will not be sustainable.
So, what should we achieve in this workshop.
We should leave here with a shared articulation of the programme deliverables, and a roadmap that sequences those deliverables into phases with clear accountability. We should have clarity on governance and institutional interfaces, policy direction, implementing responsibilities, operator accountabilities, and regulatory oversight. We should agree on the prerequisites for each phase, including safety, safeguards, licensing pathways, and public accountability measures.
We should integrate the research and industrial capability agenda into the programme design, including the role of the Multi-Purpose reactor programme as a strategic anchor for industrial, medical and scientific applications. And we should be frank about constraints, capacity, funding, timelines, and risks, then agree on mitigation actions and decision points.
Colleagues, this is a working session. The Department is here to provide direction and to ensure that the programme remains anchored in policy coherence, safeguards credibility, and public value.
If we engage with seriousness and precision, this workshop will move the nuclear programme from broad intent to practical readiness, and it will do so in a way that reflects South Africa’s historic capability, and our responsibility to sustain and develop it.
I wish you constructive deliberations, and I declare the Nuclear Energy Programme Implementation workshop open.
Subesh Pillay ACTING DIRECTOR GENERAL ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY