## 7 Results and Discussion
### Quantitative Analysis
International partnership is key to the success of innovative nuclear research and development activities relative to the sharing of financial burdens, prevention of duplications, optimization of the use of existing resources, enhancement in the movement of specialists and knowledge, and the exploitation of synergies. It is in light of this that it is important for countries that have expressed interest in the development of their first NPP to be encouraged to come together with international organizations to cooperate on innovative nuclear systems as well as the sharing of information on a broad cross-sector range, which may include the formation of clear corporation rules as well as coordination instruments within international bodies' framework, which include representatives from both industrial and governmental entities [69]. Given this, the consulted experts assigned a weight of 8.2% to this factor, placing it third in terms of the ranking. The government is, therefore, called upon to deepen its cooperation with both international industrial entities and governments. **High energy density (S6)**. Experts assigned a weight of 6.3% to this factor. As indicated supra, the high energy density of fuel used in NPPs makes it energy efficient. It is estimated that a 6-g uranium pellet has an energy that is equal to 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas or a ton of coal [70]. As a result, it comes as a form of minimizing environmental pollution relative to waste from the nuclear facility. The outcome of the AHP for the strengths is presented in Figure 2. The consolidated matrix for the AHP is presented in Table 5. According to the results, a CR and GCI of 9% and 0.33 were obtained. This is an indication that the judgements of the consulted experts are consistent and reliable. **Costly to build and lengthy construction timeframe (W1)**. The cost of construction for NPP depends on several determinants. Some of these include the capacity of the plant and its complex technology, revisions during construction, safety, environmental concerns, modularization and serialization, change in standards for regulation during construction, and acts of nuclear opponents, which are all factors that affect the cost of construction of a NPP [71]. Financing of an NPP in the course of construction represents an additional layer of the entire investment costs, which depend on the construction period and the interest rate during construction. It has been estimated that the financing cost of an NPP may represent an extra 20-29% of the over-night cost for a construction period of 7 years and 37-57% of the overnight cost for an increased construction period to 10 years, when a Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) between 7-10% is applied, excluding the general price inflation rate [72]. This, according to the experts, is a major concern in the development of NPP, especially for a developing economy such as South Africa that may not be able to solely finance the construction of additional NPPs and may, therefore, rely on outsiders to fund it. In their view, this could prolong the construction period, which will ultimately result in an increased overnight cost for the power plant. To that effect, this factor was given the highest weightage of 50.47% among the identified weaknesses, making it the first priority. **Limited fuel availability (W2)**. The finite nature of nuclear fuel is one of the disadvantages, although there is a technology to recycle spent fuel for reuse. Even though South Africa has uranium deposits, as indicated earlier, there is still consent among the experts about a possible shortage of this resource in the future, which may mean that the country