Jellyfish invasions, a steam leak and a field officer accidentally bumping a lever: these are all things that have caused unplanned shutdowns of unit 1 at Koeberg nuclear power station.
This week the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) is holding public hearings in Cape Town and the Northern Cape about extending the operating life of Koeberg unit 2.
The hearings come weeks after the minister of forestry, fisheries & the environment, Dion George, gave the green light for a second nuclear power station to be built near Koeberg on the coast north of Cape Town.
The Duynefontein site, about 3km from Koeberg, first received environmental authorisation in 2017, prompting appeals to the department by environmental organisations.
University of Cape Town (UCT) research associate Neil Overy, from the Environmental Humanities South unit, said the approval was outdated. “Environments change, technology changes, scientific knowledge changes, safety standards change and the populations living near facilities like Koeberg change,” he said. “In the event of a serious accident, Koeberg’s emergency plans [around evacuation] are entirely inadequate. If a northwest wind blows radiation into Cape Town, how will it be evacuated — via the N2? The N1 will probably be in the radioactive plume already.”
Supporters of nuclear expansion include the minister of electricity & energy, the state-owned South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), the National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute and industry members.
Electricity & energy department spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi said nuclear was the “most safe and affordable source of energy” and part of a long-term national policy. Koeberg offered one of the cheapest source of electricity in Eskom’s fleet, he said, citing a 2013 study.
But academics from Stellenbosch University, UCT and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) dispute this, warning of the excessive costs and long timelines of nuclear. Mark Swilling, Stellenbosch professor and co-director of the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, said: “There are very, very few nuclear plants in the world that have ever been completed on budget and on time.”
Opposition to new nuclear comes from a broad coalition, among them the Koeberg Alert Alliance, Project 90 by 2030, Earthlife Africa, Greenpeace Africa, the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environmental Institute, WWF South Africa and The Green Connection.
They raise concerns around cost, independent monitoring, health, safety and environmental hazards, and the storage of radioactive waste. The NNR board was appointed by a government minister, compromising its oversight, an issue flagged by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
This plan affects every home, every child, every community
— community organiser Lydia Petersen
Peter Becker of the Koeberg Alert Alliance has attended evacuation drills at Koeberg where problems were evident. “Once the decontamination equipment was said to be with the navy in Pretoria. Another time the city health department staff did not arrive on time,” he said.
A recent drill was better but population growth has raised the stakes, said Becker, a former civil society representative on the NNR board. “If it takes five minutes to process one person, how long will it take to evacuate thousands?”
Buthelezi said the Integrated Koeberg Nuclear Emergency Plan, approved by the NNR, had the flexibility to be scaled up. Still, asked Overy, how would people in an informal dwelling “seal their doors and windows against radiation?”
Becker said nuclear plants in France of the same design as Koeberg were now required to have core catchers [safety devices for a meltdown] installed. “The NNR appears to have accepted Eskom’s claim this is not necessary. It is concerning that less strict safety standards are being applied in South Africa.”
Koeberg has a plan for its spent nuclear fuel, currently stored onsite, to be moved offsite, Buthelezi said. The National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute intends to build a centralised interim storage facility for high-level radioactive waste at Vaalputs in the Northern Cape, where low and intermediate level radioactive waste is currently stored, he said.
Communities around Vaalputs have raised concerns that they were left out of decisions and job benefits. Reagam Beukes, a youth activist in Kamiesberg, said locals had applied for jobs such as decontamination officers without response. “Daily, buses and taxis bring in people from outside the area,” he said.
The Namakwa district relies on eco-tourism and agriculture, said Beukes. “We have unique biodiversity and we fear that hazardous waste could harm tourism and our water, food and agricultural produce.”
Kamiesberg farmer Dawie Burden said there is growing concern among livestock farmers about the plan to store high-level nuclear waste near their land. “Our roads are not good and the transport of this waste puts the public at risk,” he said. Burden said he would attend a public meeting about this in Garies tomorrow.
Eskom and Necsa hold public safety information forums to engage the Koeberg, Vaalputs and Pelindaba communities and the NNR does regular nuclear safety inspections of sites, said Buthelezi.
Nuclear physicist and former Necsa chair Kelvin Klemm said South Africa needs second and third large nuclear power stations. “I hope that the government ministries concerned will hurry up and finalise the authorisation of the Thyspunt site near Jeffreys Bay,” he said.
Kemm, the chair of Stratek Global, which is developing South Africa's small modular reactor technology, denied that wind and solar are cheaper than nuclear. “You must compare apples with apples. Wind and solar are intermittent. Coal and nuclear are not.”
Yet nuclear power is not exempt from disruptions, as shown by jellyfish shutting down France’s biggest nuclear plant in August — illustrating that nuclear power plants take a toll on marine environments.
The CSIR and other studies say that renewables are reliable if the grid is smart and includes battery and/or gas backup. The independent advisory energy and climate group Meridian, as well as cost estimates in South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan 2023, find that solar and wind energy are more affordable than nuclear and coal.
Following the Duynefontein approval, Buthelezi said: “Eskom will now continue with the next part of its planned preparations for the power station.”
Urging the public to participate in hearings about nuclear power, community organiser Lydia Petersen said a revised Integrated Resource Plan would be a “blueprint for our future ... once the IRP is final, it locks in our energy path for decades. This plan affects every home, every child, every community.”
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