South African industry unites in Niasa

10 December 2007

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."

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