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COURT RULING ON PEBBLE BED NUCLEAR REACTOR RESULTS 3rd June 2003.
For the past 2 years, Earthlife Africa has been trying to participate meaningfully in a complex process which aims to assess the risks and benefits of the proposed PBMR (pebble bed modular reactor) from an environmental, economic and social point of view.
Last week, Earthlife Africa Cape Town put in an urgent appeal to the court to stop the Dept of Environmental Affairs making a decision before a fair hearing had taken place.
The results of the court case earlier today showed clearly that Earthlife Africa is respected as an environmental lobby group acting in the public interest. While the court felt that the urgent application was not justified, the judge ruled that no costs should be brought against ELA CT. ELA can still continue with the court case, and argue for a right to a hearing before the decision gets made. Our lawyers, the Legal Resource Centre, are confident that we have a strong case. “We still believe we have a constitutional right to be heard but because the court did not find that our application for urgency was justified, we have no guarantee that DEAT will not make a decision even as events unfold” said spokesperson Liz McDaid. However, the implications of an expansion of the nuclear programme within South Africa and Africa are quite sobering. In light of the recent health studies and the huge financial burden of the BNFL nuclear waste clean up, we would hope that the decision-makers would be taking this into account and accordingly reject the PBMR. Earthlife Africa will be hosting a breakfast to celebrate World Environment Day on the 5th June, in Cape Town where the Legal Resource Centre will unpack the court challenge. Representatives of the media are invited to join us.
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