Eskom’s proposed nuclear power station at Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape can move to a full environmental impact assessment, after the environment department accepted its final scoping report.
The application covers a station of up to 5,200MW, according to the electricity minister’s reply to a parliamentary question put on 28 September 2026. That is about 2.8 times the 1,860MW that both Koeberg units supply together, going by the same reply.
Eskom’s final scoping report went to the environment department on 6 July 2026. In a reply to a parliamentary question put on 11 September 2026, the department said: “The Final Scoping Report has been accepted.”
Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Babalwa Lobishe welcomed the decision, according to SAnews on 23 October 2026. She said the metro is ready to anchor the investment. She cited its port, its motor industry and its university. On the department’s required studies, which cover wetlands, marine life, heritage and water security among other topics, she said: “We welcome this scrutiny.”
Acceptance of the scoping report is not an approval to build. The department said the specialist studies were under way, after which the environmental assessment practitioner will write a draft impact assessment report and make it public. The department said every concern raised during scoping will be addressed in those studies.
The department said it cannot give a timeline for finishing the assessment. The normal time for a full scoping and impact assessment is 300 days, and Eskom has already asked for two extensions under the assessment regulations, both of which were approved.
What is still undecided
The minister’s reply lists what has not been settled. Eskom has no reactor vendor and no final design. The application instead sets upper limits that fit any technology, so impacts can be assessed before a supplier is picked.
No final cost or funding model exists either. Funding options under study include private investors, public-private partnerships and project finance kept off the balance sheet, the reply said. The minister said the effect on tariffs is still undetermined.
The reply added that evacuation modelling and emergency planning belong to the nuclear licensing process. That process runs alongside the environmental one and involves the National Nuclear Regulator. Any design will have to show it meets the regulator’s requirements.
On the choice of nuclear over other sources, the minister cited the 2025 Integrated Resource Plan. It tested five scenarios, and only the nuclear case included new nuclear capacity. The minister said the plan’s balanced option includes nuclear to diversify supply, and that unnamed independent analysis finds only a small extra cost for the whole system against the least-cost reference case. The plan does not publish the system cost of its balanced option, the reply said.
The department has not said when public comment on the draft impact assessment report will open.
Related: Eskom seeks partners for up to 6GW of renewables and storage and Ekurhuleni’s go-ahead to buy private power.
