South Africa is Africa’s economic powerhouse and home to its only working source of nuclear energy.The government estimates three million South Africans live without power,but the majority of the population has electricity and the government plans to develop more through nuclear energy.South African energy experts say they can lead the way for the continent.“South Africa has the requisite expertise to embark on further nuclear programs,” said Diboke Ben Martins, South Africa's Minister of Energy.South Africa is the only Sub-Sahara nation with robust nuclear power and research system. Wolsey Barnard works for the Department of Energy,“South Africa is involved in nuclear research, nuclear power generation for the last 27 to 30 years.So it is nothing new to us.And currently five percent of our electricity is generated by means of two generators at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station,and we also have some nuclear facilities which are used extensively for medical research purposes and also isotopes for medical purposes.”Physicist Kelvin Kemm said South Africa also has the unique experience of stepping back from the nuclear weapons brink.During the apartheid era, the nation developed six complete atomic weapons.“We became the first ever to declare that we had nuclear weapons and to stop them.To build an effective nuclear weapon, you actually need an enrichment level of about 90 percent or more.For a nuclear reactor you do not need to go anywhere near 20 percent.A few years ago, we took the decision to downgrade it to 19 and a half percent, very visibly, to bring it under the safe level of 20.
