For engineers, students and communities across South Africa, the question of where the country’s electricity, clean water and specialised jobs will come from is becoming more concrete. At a seminar in Johannesburg, specialists gathered to argue that nuclear technology, applied peacefully, could shape answers to all three needs, from power supply to water availability to the training of a new generation of scientists.
The event, called the Nuclear Day: Industrial and Educational Partnership Seminar, ran under the theme “Nuclear Technologies and Education: Energy and Non-Energy Solutions”. The Embassy of the Russian Federation in South Africa and Lesotho organised it, and The Diplomatic Society, a partner of TV BRICS, reported on the discussions.
For the people in the room, the stakes were practical rather than abstract. Presentations ranged across small nuclear power plants, large and floating reactors, radiation protection and radioecology. Speakers also looked at nuclear desalination, geology and mining education, artificial intelligence, digital twins and the training of nuclear engineering specialists. Each of these fields, participants noted, connects to daily life: reliable electricity for households and industry, fresh water drawn from seawater, and careers for young specialists.
Education and human-capital development emerged as central themes. Discussions stressed the need to train the engineers, scientists, technicians and other specialists who would be required to develop nuclear facilities and operate them safely. Speakers examined how universities and industry might work together, how geological and mining education could be strengthened, and how scientific research and technical expertise could be transferred between institutions. Masamba Kah, Head of the Industrial and Educational Partnership Project, highlighted the role of industrial and educational partnerships with African countries in building the skills and knowledge needed to support advanced nuclear and related industries.
South Africa itself brings considerable experience to these conversations. The country has built expertise in nuclear research and in the peaceful use of nuclear technologies in medicine, agriculture and industry. Its scientific and educational institutions already contribute to developing the specialised skills the sector demands, a foundation that seminar participants suggested could be extended.
Diplomatic perspectives also featured in the programme. Roman Ambarov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to South Africa and Lesotho, pointed to growing global interest in nuclear power and its role in providing reliable electricity. He noted that nuclear projects are being developed in countries including China, India, Türkiye and Egypt, and that cooperation in the sector is also expanding across the Global South.
Beyond electricity generation, the seminar explored applications that touch other parts of everyday life. Nuclear desalination, participants heard, can provide the heat or electricity needed to produce fresh water from seawater, a capability with obvious relevance where water availability is a concern. Artificial intelligence and digital twins, meanwhile, can support the monitoring, modelling and maintenance of complex nuclear systems, helping to keep facilities running safely.
The discussions returned repeatedly to a single thread: the importance of combining nuclear technology with education, scientific research and technical expertise. For the students, educators and specialists the seminar addressed, that combination is what would allow such technologies to support Africa’s long-term development, translating technical capability into energy security, industrial growth and opportunity on the ground. Whether the partnerships sketched in Johannesburg can turn that promise into jobs and running water remains the open question.