The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has issued a request for information for resources relevant to building nuclear power plants.
The notice was published in Sunday, with a mid-September deadline.
This follows statements from the department and minister in May that a nuclear-build programme would be undertaken.
Minister Gwede Mantashe said at that time that ‘the nuclear-build plan will go ahead and we will explore all options’. He said that it might be done in such a way as to ‘develop a modular nuclear station on a build, operate and transfer basis, and that means there will be no immediate call for funding from the state’.
During President Jacob Zuma’s tenure, a proposed nuclear programme – probably in conjunction with Russia – produced a great deal of pushback. It was widely viewed as corrupt, and in any event unaffordable.