Cape Town earthquake raises alarm about safety at the Koeberg nuclear plant

Media statement from Maria Welcome on behalf of Safaji:

While Eskom ignored recent seismic activity off the southeast coast as nothing to worry about, NGOs are concerned about the risks associated with a nuclear plant too close to the fault line and from densely populated areas. Additionally, important information about earthquake hazards on site is not shared with the general public.

“If you asked the people running Chernobyl and Fukushima if their nuclear plants were safe, the day before those disasters, they would have said yes of course,” says Peter Baker of the Koeberg Alert Alliance. “So, now telling us that Koeberg is safe from earthquakes, it’s not. The danger to nuclear plants comes from unforeseen events, such as an unexpectedly strong earthquake. “

“In the worst case scenario, Koeberg’s evacuation plan must be implemented, and tens of thousands of people will have to be evacuated. Radioactive contamination can render an area uninhabitable for hundreds of years, so where will these people find homes? Or schools for their children?”

“Despite the request via the Public Access to Information Act (PAIA), the National Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNR) refused to provide access to a study submitted to it in 2017, which assessed seismic risk at the Koeberg site,” says Baker. Reassuring, why did the regulator and Eskom choose to keep it secret? ”

The information regulator was created according to Personal Information Protection Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), but after seven years it is still not fully functional. This has created a vacuum in terms of ensuring that public bodies fulfill their obligations to reasonably respond to priority requests for interdisciplinary action, so the only mechanism that civil society organizations have to challenge in priority refusals is court action costing hundreds of thousands of rand.

Another concern, which adds to this disturbing culture of secrecy, is that in an unprecedented move, no observers will be permitted to the Koeberg Emergency Preparedness Exercise in October 2020. This is done every two years to test the effectiveness of the contingency plan. The Koeberg Alert Alliance requested to be part of the operation, but NNR refused permission, which cited Covid-19 concerns as a reason.

“You would assume that there are protocols in place to protect the thousands of people evacuating during a pandemic, so it makes absolutely no sense that a handful of observers cannot be protected. We also suggested they conduct the inspection live, but this was also rejected by Eskom.” Without providing any reason.

The Executive Director of the Environmental Institute for Southern African Religious Communities (Safcei) Francesca de Gasparis says the government’s apparent refusal to grant access to information – a legal right in South Africa granted through the interdisciplinary Priority Action System – is a cause for concern. “What we’re seeing is the government’s lack of transparency in how decisions are made about Koeberg,” de Gasparis says.

This is, in fact, a worrying trend in the energy sector that we had hoped would end with the takeover of the state. In the past, some decisions were taken in secret and not in favor of the citizens. Although South Africa has one of the most powerful constitutions in the world, we have had to learn the hard way how important it is to hold governments accountable, especially in light of how entrenched corruption becomes when left unchecked. In 2017, for example, we had to sue the government over its corrupt and secretive nuclear deal, which – by the Western Cape Supreme Court – was found to be illegal and unconstitutional.

“We are still waiting for a response to the many priority applications of interdisciplinary work on Koeberg and hope that there will be greater transparency this time when we request information within our rights.” De Gasparis concludes.

“As the world moves to low-carbon electricity generation, nuclear energy cannot be used as transitional energy. South Africa needs to move forward with its rhetoric of its intentions, as stipulated in the NDCs to the Paris Agreement,” says Makuma Likalakala, Director of Earthlife. The very carbon-intensive nuclear fuel chain and external costs, of which there are many, are not often included in these calculations. “

An example of these costs is the estimated 200 million rand ($ 13.60 million) that Eskom paid for an initial payment of seven enhanced dry storage barrels from US energy company Holtec International to help keep Koeberg’s business running beyond 2018, as reported in local media. In November 2019.

“These earthquakes have brought renewed attention to the hazards of Koeberg. The longer the plant is in operation, the greater the chance of seismic damage, and thus the plans Eskom would have to keep the plant operating after twenty years of its useful life are questionable,” Baker adds. The secrecy of these plans is simply unacceptable. “

“Koeberg was the first nuclear plant to be built on a concrete raft supported by neoprene rubber pads, in an effort to protect against earthquakes of up to a certain degree. Horizontal buffering was not included in the foundations at Koeberg, although it is“ highly recommended ”for later plants In addition, these pads are now aged forty-four (44) years, and if the extension continues for twenty (20) years, they will be sixty-eight (68) years old by 2044. Will the neoprene pads continue to function reliably after a while “What if Cape Town was hit by an unexpectedly strong earthquake? These are important questions that must be discussed transparently, with sufficient reliable evidence under public scrutiny.”

An electrical engineer, Hilton Trollip – who heads the South Africa division of the Advances in Deep Decarbonizing Pathways in Emerging Economies Initiative, and which South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Indonesia have committed to achieving a long-term temperature target in the Paris Agreement – weighs on the issue. “We never need Koeberg to avoid load shedding. There are sustainable electrical systems that are documented and proven that can function very well without nuclear power and even without coal. We need to start phasing out the obsolete and intense pollution power plants that have reached the end of their design life and speed up construction.” Renewable energy systems to replace them. “

“Koeberg’s renewal costs have not been made public in such a way as to allow an adequate assessment of whether this major decision is a cost-effective alternative to replacing Koeberg with renewable energy and storage. Public consultations on this cannot arrive at the necessary facts. The primary loading “has no basis in reality but is featured in the ministerial justifications for nuclear energy. South Africa cannot afford the consequences of these kinds of opaque operations affected from within on large, long-term investments,” Trollip adds.

“Eskom is once again committing tens of billions of rand, piece by piece, and is essentially making a critical decision by stealth, rather than subjecting it to the rigors of public scrutiny. Besides secrecy over safety issues, this is more than just a disturbing continuation of Eskom’s disdain for transparency and accountability, As we saw during the height of the state takeover. These businesses pose a danger to the entire economy and a danger to Cape Town residents, ”Trollip concludes.

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