Greenpeace Africa says it has filed papers in the Pretoria High Court to compel the Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, to update the country’s inadequate nuclear liability regulations.<\/p>\n
The non-governmental environmental organisation said nuclear investments are a distraction from investments in renewable energy solutions, which can quickly take South Africa out of its current energy crisis.<\/p>\n
It emerged in September last year, that South Africa had agreed to a\u00a0$50-billion partnership with Russia, to increase its nuclear power generation capacity.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace\u00a0noted that South Africa is reeling from a crippling electricity crisis due to severe pressures on the grid, and an energy system that is completely failing to deliver.<\/p>\n
“It would take at least 15 years for any new nuclear project to deliver electricity to the grid, which is far too little, far too late and comes at far too high a price\u201d said Greenpeace Africa executive director, Michael O’Brien Onyeka.<\/p>\n
Section 29 (1) and Section 29 (2) of the National Nuclear Regulator Act, 47 of 1999 states that the Minister of Energy is responsible for determining the appropriate levels of financial security to be provided by the holders of nuclear licenses in South Africa.<\/p>\n
According to the regulations, the levels of nuclear liability should be updated every five years, Greenpeace said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShockingly, the levels of financial security for nuclear license holders have not been amended, updated or revised in more than 10 years.<\/p>\n
This means\u00a0 there is no lawfully applicable determination for the levels of financial security as required by the Act, and what is currently contained in the regulations is both out of date, and completely inadequate, which is in contravention of South Africa’s constitution\u201d said O’Brien Onyeka.<\/p>\n
The famed organisation said that the full human and environmental costs of the Fukushima nuclear disaster are yet to be tallied.<\/p>\n
However, over 140 000 people were ordered to evacuate from Fukushima Prefecture alone, and approximately R450 billion was listed by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in September 2014 for permanent indemnification and provisional compensation.<\/p>\n
The government of Japan set aside approximately R68 billion for the cost of reconstruction after the nuclear disaster. “In South Africa, the current regulations set the level of liability for a nuclear accident at Koeberg at a ridiculously low rate of R2.4 billion\u201d said O’Brien Onyeka.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace said it has sent numerous legal letters requesting that the minister complies with the law and updates the levels of financial security, taking into account the costs of Fukushima.<\/p>\n
It said that the minister’s failure to apply her mind to update the levels of financial security means that the amount of money that nuclear license holders would be liable for in case there is a nuclear accident at any of the country’s nuclear facilities is woefully inadequate.<\/p>\n
“Through this court case, Greenpeace is demanding that the Minister of Energy gets her priorities right and abandons the nuclear expansion plans that have been plagued with irregularities.”<\/p>\n
“Instead, the government should be focused on removing the barriers to renewable energy sources that are reliable and can immediately take South Africa out of its current electricity crisis\u201d said O’Brien Onyeka.<\/p>\n
DA calls for transparency on R1 trillion nuclear deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n