Uranium producers South Africa and Russia planned to establish international nuclear centres to facilitate the sale of uranium to global markets, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said this week.

Russia was courting SA and other countries to co-operate on finding new technologies to process uranium to fuel nuclear power stations, said Sonjica.

Government planned to declare uranium a "strategic mineral" and would start stockpiling the sought-after nuclear fuel in part to ensure it could power SA's ambitious nuclear expansion program.

Russia was "looking at SA as a market, but probably we can look at co-operating with them on beneficiating uranium", Sonjica said.

Government wanted uranium processing to take place in SA as "we want to have some control over it".

SA is the only country in Africa with a nuclear power plant.

Borrowing from the French example, Sonjica said, SA would also look at recycling and reprocessing spent uranium fuel. "We think it will help us in terms of ensuring that we have the source for generating nuclear (power)."

French Industry Minister Francois Loos said SA should build a second conventional nuclear power plant instead of investing in the highly technological pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) -- a new nuclear power plant to be established near the Koeberg plant. Loos said the PBMR project might not significantly alter SA's inadequate electricity capacity.

SA has embarked on a massive nuclear energy expansion program, with 24-30 new nuclear plants being mooted. The entire project is expected to cost R900bn.

France has encouraged SA to embrace conventional "thirdgeneration" nuclear power plants to expand electricity capacity. French group Areva is bidding to build such a 1300MW plant.