Greenpeace tells SA: no more nukes

Greenpeace Africa has called on the government to put on hold its plans to build six nuclear power stations.

The organisation is also calling on Eskom to shut down Koeberg, South Africa's only nuclear power station, when its designed lifespan expires in 2024.

Greenpeace Africa said the moratorium should be effective until, at least, the implications for safety of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan have been fully evaluated.

Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo, releasing the report The True Cost of Nuclear Power in South Africa yesterday, said: "Nuclear power is riddled with safety issues. And when something goes wrong, it can have catastrophic impact as was seen in Chernobyl, Russia, in 1986 and in Fukushima in 2011.

"Nuclear technology is inherently unsafe and needs to be protected against nature and against humans."

The Department of Energy is building two multibillion-rand coal-power power stations - Medupi and Kusile - and is planning to build six nuclear power stations to meet the country's burgeoning electricity demands.

Koeberg has two nuclear reactors and generates about 5% of the country's electricity.

Naidoo said: "Nuclear energy is a dangerous distraction from the clean energy development needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. Nuclear power simply delivers too little, too late, and at too high a price for the environment."

He said it was a contradiction that South Africa, which says it wants to reduce greenhouse emissions by 34% by 2020 and by a further 42% by 2025%, was building coal and nuclear power stations.

South Africa will host the UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban between November 28 and December 9.