Eskom wants to build a large nuclear power station next to a small seaside town in South Africa

Minister of Electricity and Energy, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, shared details about the proposed Thyspunt Nuclear Power Station near St Francis Bay and Jeffreys Bay.

Ramokgopa shared this information in response to a Parliamentary question by National Assembly member Edwin Baptie.

Baptie asked Ramokgopa for details about the Thyspunt Nuclear Power Station and the associated safety and risk profiles.

He also asked about the provincial disaster preparedness and emergency response plans, the project cost, and the proposed funding model.

Ramokgopa responded, saying that Eskom’s application provides for a nuclear power station with a generating capacity of up to 5,200 megawatts (MW).

To put this in perspective, this is more generation capacity than the Medupi and Kusile power stations and triple the size of the Koeberg nuclear station.

The project is still in its early phases, and Eskom has not yet selected a reactor vendor or a final reactor design for the proposed nuclear power station at Thyspunt.

“The final technology would be determined only through the applicable government approval, procurement and nuclear licensing processes,” he said.

He added that no final project cost or approved funding model for the power station can be provided at this stage.

This is because the reactor technology, the number and size of units, the contracting model, and the construction schedule have not been finalised.

They also have to decide on the localisation level, financing structure, and risk allocation for the project.

“These variables materially affect both the overnight capital cost and the total financed project cost,” Ramokgopa said.

Funding mechanisms could include private-sector participation, public-private partnership structures, and project finance or other off-balance-sheet arrangements.

Safety and environmental approval for the Thyspunt Nuclear Power Station

Because the technology has not yet been determined, the environmental application is based on a technology-neutral Plant Parameter Envelope.

The envelope defines conservative upper-bound parameters within which the environmental impacts of the proposed development are assessed.

One of the biggest concerns is the impact of the nuclear power station on the environment and the nearby towns.

This is why public participation and consultations regarding the new Thyspunt Nuclear Power Station are crucial.

Ramokgopa said that the public participation activities completed to date relate primarily to the scoping phase of the environmental impact assessment.

“The environmental impact assessment and the nuclear regulatory process, which are being undertaken in parallel, have not been concluded,” he said.

The Final Scoping Report was submitted to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment on 6 July 2026.

“The project is now proceeding to the detailed environmental impact assessment phase,” he said.

A detailed safety and risk profile of the Thyspunt Nuclear Power Station will depend on the selected reactor technology.

“Any selected design will have to demonstrate compliance with the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) requirements,” he said.

“This includes defence-in-depth, redundancy and diversity of safety systems, and protection against internal and external hazards.”

“It also incorporates severe-accident prevention and mitigation, radiological protection, waste management, and emergency preparedness.”

He said that the Plant Parameter Envelope is currently being used in the environmental assessment process.

The information will be used to assess conservative bounding impacts before a vendor for the power station is selected.

St Francis Bay residents are not happy with nuclear power plant plans

Residents from St Francis Bay, a holiday town in the Eastern Cape, are fighting against the nuclear power station proposed by Eskom.

Thyspunt Alliance leader Trudi Malan said that their opposition to the nuclear development in the area stretches back decades.

She explained that the site was selected during the apartheid government’s time, where different considerations were important.

These considerations included the requirement that the site not be too close to a homeland for security reasons, which are no longer relevant.

She added that the environmental and heritage protections were far weaker when the sites were first chosen.

However, Eskom started buying up land in preparation for the new nuclear power station in the region, and she said it is now dead set on using this site.

She said Eskom’s public consultation process has been inadequate, and that residents’ concerns have largely been ignored.

“We’ve been submitting comments and responding to the environmental impact assessment since I started living here, which is nearly 25 years,” she said.

“The community has turned up for the meetings to give their inputs with very good questions that could not be answered.”

“At the moment, we don’t think it’s a fair process. It does not address half of the issues of the current scoping phase.”

Despite concerns about limited consultation, Malan said residents have shown strong engagement and opposition.

She explained that from a biodiversity perspective, it is an important site with systems that can have downstream impacts on communities and water security.

Safety concerns remain a major sticking point, particularly around evacuation. “There’s only one road leading out of the town,” she said.

Malan said that a legal battle is increasingly likely as they prepare detailed submissions challenging the project.