Press release 21 Apr 2005.

WHO’S PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN FROM NUKES?

On the 22nd April Earth Day marks its 35th anniversary, a worldwide movement to protect our planet. This year the theme is Protecting Our Children's Health and Our Future. Despite the extraordinary obstacles that we face in our efforts to protect our natural resources, few will dare argue with the moral duty we have to protect our children from harm.

 As a city with a nuclear reactor on our doorstep, it is critical that there is some form of credible protective body that is designed to protect the public interest. The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) is supposedly one of these protectors; an independent institution to provide for the protection against nuclear damage through the establishment of safety standards and regulatory practices. 

However, the NNR has proposed as their new CEO, a man who, according to April Noseweek, also happens to be employed by the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) company.

“The idea of the nuclear industry policing itself makes a mockery of the regulator” said Olivia Andrews, nuclear campaigner. Environmental NGO, Earthlife Africa, is investigating the issue further and will consult with its legal team regarding any further action in this regard. 

The ANC expressed a decidedly anti nuclear view before they came into power in 1994, but now, as government, they have a different view. Without government support, the PBMR would probably have collapsed. Could the push towards nuclear power be motivated by corruption? It would seem that the people who are pushing PBMR are the people who stand to make a sound profit if the demo project goes ahead (whether or not it is successful). Noseweek reported that should the demo reactor be successful the plan is to sell 240 reactors, of which 216 would be sold in the international market at an estimated US$225-million per reactor. Is greed and corruption deciding the course of the future of the children in South Africa?