Who's really bluffing? Nuclear industry desperately grasping what is left of their apartheid era inheritance.

Mr Lloyd and his ilk are happy enough that the nuclear summit did not go ahead.ﾠ as this left them safely within their comfort zone, able to continue to spread their version of the truth undisturbed.
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Those organisations concerned about the continuance of the nuclear industry, those individuals and communities who have suffered as a result of the activities of the nuclear industry remain silenced as the cancellation of the summit prevented them from voicing their concerns.
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But international evidence is there.ﾠ Contrary to those in bed with the nuclear industry, the facts are that top level government research from both USA and the EU show that far from being safe, even the so called safe doses of radiation are dangerous to human health. (European committee on radiation risk 2003)
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The old argument of background radiation or the toxicity of coal ashe cannot begin to justify inflicting increases cancers and other radiation related diseases on current and future generations.
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Radioactive waste glibly supposed to break down over time - the time periods are actually millions of years, longer than humankind has been on the planet - are we to justify degrading and destroying the planet further on the basis that it is already degraded.ﾠ Surely ethical and moral reasons alone should abhore such a stance. Millions of dollars spent in a process of investigating the disposal of radioactive waste using delicate and complicated but very expensive technologies and still haven't got it right.
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For those for whom ethics and morals are a distant memory, the nuclear industry produces the most expensive electricity in the world.ﾠ As well as the costs in terms of human health, there are huge costs in terms of the need for stringent regulatory systems, the costly fuel production cycle, the operations and maintenance and the decommissioning and waste storage for millions of years.ﾠ
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However, these costs are hidden from the public - the government subsidises the nuclear industry (in the past - a large percentage of the DME budget went to prop up the nuclear industry).ﾠ The new PBMR proposed programme, a project going backwards in terms of progress has already cost R1.2 bn.ﾠ This project cannot attract credible foreign investors, and all financial data are surrounded by veils of secrecy.
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Far from progressing, nuclear industry is declining - the last order for a nuclear reactor in the USA which was not subsequently cancelled was in 1973.ﾠ In Europe, of the countries Mr Lloyd proudly names, Belgium, Sweden and Germany have policies of phasing out nuclear power. In Spain, six orders were abandoned in 1984 and the existing plants are so uneconomic that their owners are receiving consumer subsidies of about ﾬ10bn. In Britain, the two companies that own nuclear power plants are both bankrupt despite strong government support and capital write-offs. Japan has the most expensive electricity in the world. Shall we ask who's actually bluffing?

What are the alternatives?ﾠ Despite no government subsidies, despite a regulatory system hostile to their entry, foreign investors want to invest in clean renewable energy in South Africa.ﾠ Alternatives do exist - they come in a myriad of forms but are given research budgets which are laughable.ﾠ If Eskom was to put R12 bn into solar thermal, R12bn into wind energy, R12bn into wave energy, research teams would soon show dramatic results. one example is that an investment of R4bn would save 7 PBMRs worth of electricity, most of it peak within the CMC area.
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If Mr Lloyd and his allies are serious about finding a solution, they he should be first in line, shouting for a nuclear summit!
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The continuing desperate cries of the nuclear industry should be exposed for what they are, the dying industry, desperately holding to the last remnants of their inheritance from the apartheid era.