{"id":172627,"date":"2017-04-28T09:36:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T07:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=172627"},"modified":"2017-04-28T09:36:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T07:36:05","slug":"eskom-may-have-paid-millions-to-keep-anti-nuclear-research-groups-quiet-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/172627\/eskom-may-have-paid-millions-to-keep-anti-nuclear-research-groups-quiet-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom may have paid millions to keep anti-nuclear research groups quiet: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of rands in Eskom funding appears to have silenced two well-respected research institutions, previously critical of the state-owned utility\u2019s plans to procure a fleet of nuclear power stations, according to a new report by\u00a0amaBhungane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to amaBhungane, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was “effectively gagged” after a meeting in March between acting Eskom CEO Matshela Koko and CSIR head, Dr Thulani Dlamini.<\/p>\n

Insiders speaking to\u00a0amaBhungane noted that a strong rumour had emerged from the meeting, pointing to\u00a0R100 million pledge by Eskom\u00a0for CSIR research on technology related to nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

However, when asked about the meeting,\u00a0Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe told amaBhungane the two institutions have had a long-running partnership and that only R30.8 million worth of “multi-year collaborative projects” were currently underway with the CSIR.<\/p>\n

“CSIR and Eskom continue to enjoy a strong relationship in spite of occasional, but understandable, disagreements. Interim Group Chief Executive, Mr Matshela Koko, meets with our partners on a continuous basis and, by their nature, these meetings are confidential,” said\u00a0Phasiwe.<\/p>\n

CRSES<\/strong><\/h3>\n

amaBhungane reported that it appears that a similar agreement was reached between the state-owned power utility and\u00a0the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES), who at the last second decided to withdraw comments it had submitted for publication that were highly critical of Eskom\u2019s nuclear plans.<\/p>\n

Further email correspondence seen by amaBhungane suggested that the CRSES was\u00a0unwilling to offend Eskom for fear of having its funding pulled.<\/p>\n

In an email seen by amaBhungane, CRSES director Wikus van Niekerk acknowledged the censorship saying, “We receive significant funding from Eskom, some from a programme where Matshela is personally involved in, and I need to be careful how I react in public not to put this at risk.”<\/p>\n

Eskom, the CSIR and CRSES have all denied that Eskom has in any way tried to rein in independent research or debate on nuclear or renewable energy options.<\/p>\n

You can read the full report here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0High Court strikes down Russia-SA nuclear deal \u2013 all proposals declared unconstitutional<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Millions of rands in Eskom funding appears to have silenced two well-respected research institutions previously critical of the state-owned utility\u2019s plans to procure a fleet of nuclear power stations, amaBhungane reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":108061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-172627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172627"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172649,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172627\/revisions\/172649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}