Geiger Counters Instead of Kitchen Clocks

GEIGER COUNTERS INSTEAD OF KITCHEN CLOCKS

In January this year, Minister van Schalkwyk approved the production of nuclear fuel in South Africa and the building of another nuclear reactor - the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). In the process, he also approved the transport of this fuel and its "raw material". The question is whether towns and ports along this route know they will be endangered by the transportation of radioactive/hazardous material and if they have emergency plans in place?

The nuclear fuel would be manufactured at Pelindaba near Pretoria. The "raw material" - also known as enriched uranium, or old Russian warheads, depending on the source - would be transported to Pelindaba from Durban, and the fuel transported from Pelindaba to Koeberg. So this transport route happily includes the whole of South Africa in the grand nuclear plan.

It seems that all protests made by the public in regard to the PBMR and production of nuclear fuel in South Africa were summarily dismissed by Minister van Schalkwyk, including: long-term storage of highly radioactive waste, safety and accidents, the fact that the taxpayer would pay for everything and the de-linking of the fuel plant and the PBMR. According to Minister van Schalkwyk, the fuel plant and PBMR it supplies are similar, but different. How different? The minister says they are in different places, different in nature, and have "vastly different" environmental risks. Does this environmental difference compare Pelindaba to Koeberg? Does it include people, or not?

And while some South African ministers may be dizzy with their nuclear plans and all the millions this budget brings, taxpayers might be interested to know that South Africans are perhaps the only nation that has been brainwashed into taking on an entire nuclear financial burden alone - without the help of private investment. This does not happen in the UK or USA or any other nation that pro-nuclear people or even couch potato people might look to for comfort. Even Mr Tito Mboweni of the SA Reserve Bank is alarmed. If Eskom has its way, SA will give new meaning to the word "inflation" and Minister Alec Erwin's happy plan to increase electricity bills by double figures will put everyone across the breadline from "just coping" to "not coping at all" - everyone except government ministers of course.

It is also interesting to note that according to those people who spread the nuclear joy - the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA): "each year the world´s 441 nuclear power reactors create enough spent fuel to fill a football field to a depth of 1,5 metres. That´s about 10 500 tonnes of heavy metal. This waste is thermally hot and can stay radioactive for thousands of years. Because it is solid and does not readily dissolve in water, the fuel wastes are typically stored in water pools on site at the nuclear reactors for many years".

So all of this nuclear fuel and waste would be in South Africa for a very long time. There is no such thing as "disposal" of nuclear waste. The radioactive material is simply moved around from pillar to post, or stored on site - while local residents keep Geiger counters instead of kitchen clocks.

And while every minute ticks away - that nuclear waste is building up. And up and up and up.

Yours sincerely
INGELA RICHARDSON