|
The founding meeting of the Nuclear
Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa) was held on 6 December.
The industry body's purpose is to "support, promote and champion the
collective interests of its members" which would primarily be
corporations joined by 'associate members', 'sponsor members', academic
institutions and some individual professionals. In return for their
fees, sponsor members obtain a seat on the Niasa board. Current sponsor
members come from nuclear companies, Necsa, Eskom, PBMR Pty,
Westinghouse, Areva, Uranium One and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. With
elected board members coming from DCD-Dorbyl, Satsi, ITherma Labs,
Stratek, M-Tech Industrial, North-West Universtity and University of
Pretoria. Rob Adam of Necsa is Niasa's President, while Sias Booysen of
DCD-Dorbyl is Vice President. The body has been amalgamated with the
South African Nuclear Manufacturing Association (Sanma), another new
body which had been chaired by Booysen. Niasa will operate a number of
sub-committees, the first of which concerns manufacturing and is to be
chaired by Booysen. State-owned Eskom announced plans to build up to 18
GWe of nuclear power, and another state enterprise, PBMR Pty is
developing a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. Adam said " the country has an opportunity to fully engage in the total spectrum of the nuclear industry and its fuel cycle."
|