DESPITE Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environmental Institute's (SAFCEI), significant victory in court earlier this year, the fight to put a stop to the nuclear project is far from over.
While the chairperson of South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) said the country could restart a procurement process for its nuclear expansion project as soon as next month, two international anti-nuclear activists are criss-crossing the country in an effort to educate communities on the harmful effects of nuclear energy. Vladmir Slivyak from Ecodefense in Russia and Chris Williams from Nuclear Information Resource Service USA visited Durban on Saturday.
According to the eminent Russian environmentalist, they are here to spread the word in terms of what’s happening on the international front in an attempt to help countries make informed decisions.
“In Germany, they’ve already taken a decision to close 23 nuclear reactor plants in the next five to six years. They’ve made a commitment to source all their power through sustainable energy. Other countries should follow in this path. The company that wants to build these “safe” reactors has a bad reputation. It was part of the Russian cover-up of a nuclear disaster, which took place 60 years ago in Kazakhstan, and was four-times worse than Chernobyl,” said Slivyak.
It is alleged that the secret disaster reportedly took place after a Soviet nuclear weapons test in Kazakhstan during the 1950s. Though the test itself was no secret, a report revels that Soviet scientists discovered widespread radioactive contamination and radiation sickness surrounding the Semipalatinsk test site, but decided to keep it a secret from locals and the rest of the world. Even though the test were conducted underground in tunnels and shafts, the impact of the detonation was felt some 248 miles away and 638 people ended up going to hospital with radiation sickness. In addition, one million people were later recognised by the government of Kazakhstan as having suffered ‘in a broad sense’, according to a 2014 report by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
While the terms of the financing for the South Africa deal have never been spelled out, Russian state-owned nuclear group Rosatom, which appears to be the frontrunner to win the future tender, offers to finance, build and operate plants in various countries on terms that are often steep. For example, to build Hungary’s Paks-2 plant, Rosatom gave Budapest an $11 billion loan spread over 30 years. Hungary has to start paying that back even if the plant is not completed on time. The interest Moscow could collect from Hungary is unclear, but a similar 30-year, $11.4 billion agreement with Bangladesh inked last year could result in $8 billion in interest. A $25 billion deal Rosatom signed with Egypt could, over a 35-year term of the loan, swell to $71 billion.
“The proposal to build nuclear reactors in South Africa is a bad one. South Africa should not burden itself with nuclear waste that would last for tens of thousands of years, just so we can have electricity for 40 years.
The people who sell nuclear power are telling people that they need to embrace it and that it is cheap and good for you. It is the most expensive way there is to make electricity, furthermore, it is not part of your community. It exists behind high walls with armed guards, you don't own it,” said Williams.
With an energy revolution taking place all over the world, Williams said the country should rather focus on renewable energy. “In America, we have 80 thousand tons of nuclear waste we don''t know what to do with. People who are investing big money into energy are not looking at nuclear anymore, they are looking at renewable energy. South Africa should not make the mistake that the U.S and Russia made,” he said.
