The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) has highlighted the importance to the country, and indeed the wider world, of the now-authorsied programme to construct a new Multipurpose Reactor (MPR). It did so in its statement, issued on Sunday, welcoming the Cabinet’s decision to approve the acquisition and construction of an MPR. The MPR will be located at Necsa’s complex at Pelindaba, west of Pretoria, and will replace the State-owned entity’s current 20 MW SAFARI-1 research reactor, which first became operational in 1965. “Cabinet approval of [the] SAFARI-1 replacement is a major milestone for South Africa, the continent and the whole world,” affirmed Necsa Group CE Loyiso Tyabashe.
