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You might remember we wrote about nuclear power a few weeks ago, sorting the fact from the fiction. We have now shortened this article into an attractive and easy to read flyer (which is also easy to print out and distribute!). Continue reading
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With the news that the Government’s nuclear tender could be worth R1 trillion, the potential for nuclear power being part of South Africa’s future energy mix has yet again become a hot topic. Project 90 has put together a fact sheet on nuclear power, sorting the facts from the fiction and taking a look at the reasons behind the highly publicised nuclear renaissance. What are your views on nuclear power? We’d love to read your comments. Continue reading
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Come and join the growing movement of people who oppose nuclear power being part of our energy mix in South Africa. Call for energy efficiency and renewable energy instead! There are three events happening in Cape Town next week and we hope to see you there! Continue reading
I am attending the launch workshop of a year-long, part-time Climate leadership course organised by Wits and InWent in Munich this week. I am delighted at the prospect of engaging in formal study again and grateful for the InWent scholarship that makes it possible. 15 emerging climate leaders from South Africa and Indonesia respectively have been selected to participate in a leadership capacity building programme that will be hosted by Wits University in South Africa and by the Centre for Climate risk and Opportunity management (CCROM) in Indonesia.
I travelled to Munich via Paris and on arrival in Paris was greeted by most alarming newspaper headlines – leaked Electricite de France (EDF) memos posted on the French anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire´s website suggest that design flaws in the nuclear power station under construction at Flamanville (on the Normandy coast) could cause a catastrophic accident. Engineers at EDF said in the internal memos that welding on the European Pressurised reactor (EPR) “does not meet norms and could result in a large scale outpouring of radioactivity.”
French environmentalists fear that this could lead to what would amount to an irreversible meltdown similar to that of Chernobyl in 1986. Even worse, according to the memos, not only the new EPR but also many of the other 57 reactors already operating in France could be affected by similar flaws. An EDF spokesperson admitted that the memos had come from the EDF and a senior nuclear engineer from Areva (not named in the article I read) commented that EPR is a new design being built to scale for the first time and it is “not suprising that there are problems with the design.
Originally the Nuclear power station at Flamanville was meant to start producing power by 2012 but the start date has been delayed until 2014 and its cost has been re-estimated at 5 billion Euro instead of the initial 3.3 billion Euro budget. President Sarkozy, Ariva and EDF (which now owns British Energy) have already sold EPR packages to customers worldwide including China, the Middle East and Britian.
Brenda Martin
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