Author Archive for: Engineering News

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a specialist organisation of the United Nations system, highlighted on Friday that it has piloted a new training tool in Senegal, in support of the West African country’s plan to acquire a research reactor. The piloting of the new tool took place in Dakar, from December 12 to December 16. Designated the IAEA Human Resource Modelling Tool for New Research Reactor Programmes, the new training system is intended to help countries to determine and develop the skilled workforces they will need to implement new research reactor programmes. Using modelling, the tool will help these countries to address the human resources requirements of every step in such programmes, from planning research reactors to operating them.

JSE-listed multidisciplinary construction group Stefanutti Stocks has advised shareholders that it has submitted an overarching preliminary and general cost claim, as well as a subcontractor overarching preliminary and general cost claim, of R337-million and R193-million, respectively, in relation to the Kusile power project. In addition to a construction cost claim of R438-million and a finance cost claim of R171-million, the total of all provisional claims submitted to the experts is R1.14-billion.

South Africa needs to act now and transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and competitive economy to unlock new green opportunities and avoid the “massive” cost of inaction around climate change, a report recently published by the National Business Initiative (NBI), in partnership with Business Unity South Africa (Busa) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), has found. The NBI-Busa-BCG Climate Pathways project last week published the ‘Financing South Africa’s Just Transition’ and ‘South Africa’s Net-Zero Transition’ reports.

An Africa edition of the ‘2022 Climate Survey’ conducted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) has found that 88% of African respondents believe climate change is already affecting their everyday life, while 61% believe that climate change and environmental damage have affected their income or source of livelihood. The effects to income and livelihoods are typically a result of severe drought, rising sea levels or coastal erosion, or extreme weather events such as floods or hurricanes.

City Power has managed to slash its power outage calls backlog to 2 000 from 5 000. Most of the calls are due to the heavy flooding on 5 and 6 December.