Amid speculation about South Africa’s nuclear build programme, the French special envoy for the French-South Africa nuclear partnership Pascal Colombani is in the country punting his country for the highly anticipated programme.
During his two-day visit to the country, Colombani is scheduled to have meetings “at the political level” as as well with relevant public enterprises such as Eskom and the South African Nuclear Energy Cooperation (Necsa). However, he would not say who he is scheduled to meet in government.
“This is my first visit since I have been appointed by President [François] Hollande as his special envoy for the nuclear partnership with South Africa. Therefore, the overall purpose of my visit is to scale up our cooperation into a long-term strategic partnership in nuclear energy with South Africa,” Colombani said.
He said France and South Africa share ambitious goals for the development of nuclear energy, “which should become one key component of our strategic partnership”.
According to Colombani, France was ready to scale up the cooperation between the two countries into a strategic long-term partnership, by supporting the development of South Africa’s new nuclear programme. Technology, training and safety are at the core of this partnership, he said.
“France has long experience in nuclear energy, for more than 60 years. France has also been sharing its knowledge and learning with fellow countries for decades, for example with China, where the partnership has been going on for more than 30 years,” Colombani said.
Other than France, several other countries have expressed interest in South Africa’s nuclear programme, including Russia and the US. — Fin24
