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The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) suspended its licence to Westinghouse Electric Company to export fuel assembly components to its subsidiary in Sweden, where they would be assembled into fuel rods and shipped to South Africa for use in the Koeberg nuclear power plant last December. This sparked US concerns about the possible proliferation of enriched uranium. Pretoria argued that it had a right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses, as enshrined in international nuclear agreements like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The NRC had issued the licence partly based on South Africa’s assurances that the fuel components would be made subject to the terms of the Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (123 Agreement) between the United States and the Government of South Africa. The US-RSA 123 Agreement expired on December 4, 2022, and the assurances supporting the licence issuance are no longer valid.
Official sources told Daily Maverick that the main reason the two sides could not agree on a new 123 Agreement was that South Africa refused to accept a clause that the US insisted on inserting into the new agreement — that South Africa must continue to import nuclear fuel and could not manufacture the fuel itself. South Africa has asked US officials if the US regards SA as a nuclear proliferation risk and has assured Washington that if it does decide to enrich uranium for manufacturing nuclear fuel, it will only do so with full IAEA safeguards and monitoring.
This article is originally published by dailymaverick.co.za
