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Cape Town – Responding to Dr Kelvin Kemm’s opinion piece SA nuclear site set to get green light Fin24 user Judith Taylor (a member of EarthLife) questions why South Africans have been asked to approve the purchase of nuclear power plants for which no clear specifications exist.
READ: Fin24 readers speak out against nuclear energy
READ: Nuclear adviser responds to his critics
Taylor writes:
I do not doubt the capabilities of our nuclear scientists; however, I deeply question Dr Kemm’s conclusions about Fukushima. The one immediate fatality was covered up. There have been others resulting from the attempts to clean up the site.
What is of far greater concern is the failure of the international nuclear industry to contain the site in any way whatsoever. Radioactive waste is being expelled into the Pacific Ocean with disastrous impacts on ocean life. The radioactive plume released into the air continues to pollute California and Alaska. Radiation levels in Tokyo are unacceptable and threaten the Olympic Games.
The National Nuclear Regulator is a deeply under-financed body. The public participation sessions in Thyspunt and other places were very well attended by people who do not want nuclear power plants.
Most of all, a nuclear power plant comes with the high burden of uranium mining which is destroying communities, water, land and air throughout the world. The cost of the mining and beneficiation of uranium is never factored into the cost of nuclear power. If it were to be, nuclear power generated electricity would go out of sight compared with sustainable energy power producers.
In South Africa - and Africa as a whole - the huge distances mean that local and cost-effective solutions have to be found. Moving away from high cost grid infrastructures makes complete sense. Too much power is lost through attenuation when delivered by a national grid across great distances.
In addition, a nuclear power station takes between 10 and 25 years to complete. Recently, many have been abandoned before completion.
Would you buy a car without knowing that it was fully tested? Would you buy it off a non-specific plan? I don’t think I would. Yet, as South Africans, we are being asked to approve the purchase of nuclear power plants for which no clear specifications exist.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on Fin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
