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South African cabinet approves nuclear program

Xinhua, December 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

The South African cabinet has approved a 9,600 MW nuclear procurement program to augment its erratic power supply, cabinet spokesperson Phumla Williams confirmed on Thursday.

"I don't have much information right now, call me after the holiday," Williams told Xinhua.

"Check with the Government Gazette notice released by the Department of Energy on December 21 for more information," Williams added.

Several countries, including Russia, China, France and South Korea, are positioning themselves for winning the South African bid for the program, which could cost as much as 1 trillion rand (about 70 billion U.S. dollars).

With the approval by the cabinet, the Department of Energy is expected to call for quotations for the bidding process.

The government has been pursuing the nuclear program to make up power shortage which is expected to stall growth in gross domestic product (GDP) to 2 percent this year, according to a World Bank forecast.

The electricity problem since 2007 is expected to cost the economy more than 300 billion rand (about 20 billion dollars) in lost output, Dawie Roodt, an economist of Efficient Group, told Xinhua. Enditem