Down with Koeberg and Mini-Koeberg!

KOEBERG needs to be closed down, and the mini-Koeberg Pebble Reactors, stopped. Clearly concerns about safety are only half of the problem. A nuclear-chemical incident at the plant resulted in an outage and blackout across the country last week. Engineers have still not explained exactly how waste material will be disguarded, nor how much the decommissioning process is going to cost, nor how Capetonians would be evacuated in the event of a class 9 emergency. Koeberg has a lifespan of between thirty and forty years and is fast approaching its end.

The new Pebble Bed design is just as bad and only reproduces the Koeberg mess. While industrialists tinker with nuclear energy, wasting taxpayers money in the process, they are ignoring hot rocks in the ground – geothermal energy sources that are able to heat water and drive turbines with none of problems associated with mining uranium ore, extracting fissible material, and disposing of radiactive waste byproducts. Australia already has a thriving geothermal industry and South Africa’s geology is perfect for similar development.

Just look at all the hot water pouring out of the Capes’ Goudini Spa, from underground wells and fissues — proof that the energy exists and merely needs the know-how and willpower to be tapped. Will South Africa take a non-nuclear route, or simply reproduce the costly mistakes of the past? Only time can tell.

FORWARD TO A NUCLEAR-FREE, NON-SEXIST, NON-RACIST SOUTH AFRICA.

6 comments
  1. so, lets kid ourselves that wind, wave, geothermal and sun power can generate 100% of our energy needs ?

    Can it ?

    The initial cost outlay is simply impossible to cover our current power needs.

    We need a quick and affordable solution to replace fossil fuel for power generation. Alternative energy sources simply cannot provide the speed of the outlay required to be a quick alternative due to simple economics.

    The other more deepset problem which also effects the uptake of nuclear power is financial. The world economy runs on fossil fuel and the hands on that economy won’t losen the grip on the wheel without a fight.

    I think alternative clean energy sources are a must, however, to bridge the gap between fossil and clean energy, nuclear may be the only hope, if we can first overcome the obvious economic implications of trying to modify the world economy.

    There is no quick fix and no magical solution here. It’s a case of the lesser of two evils.

  2. Yes you are missing something. The fact that our Economy and Environment are run by the well educated fully qualified Reporting engineers of South Africa.

    Like beach ban, they know more about our needs than ORI, WESSA and UNISCO.

    Welcome to the freedom of speech, Democricy via reporting…….

    I am Anthony Whiteman and The Truth Will Prevail

  3. He is Anthony Whiteman and he’s a total dimwit.

  4. What part of global thermonuclear meltdown don’t you understand? Don’t you see that nuclear power is just a cover for the arms industry and that without nuclear engineers you can’t make atom bombs? Isn’t that enough of a threat to peace and environmental stability?

    I demand safe geothermal energy and an end to the nuclear industry!

  5. Discussing the safety of nuclear power is like military intelligence, an oxymoron. One might as well discuss the relative safety of a Humvee travelling in Bagdad, or the pros and cons of nuclear terrorism. Every nuclear plant no matter how “safe” represents a potential source of radioactive material for constructing a “dirty” nuclear device. Keeping Koeberg’s PBMR’s under lock and key is going to be extremely costly and a total waste of time.

  6. Responses to ‘Down with Koeberg and Mini-Koeberg!’
    I’ll pay some attention to this blog when the Author can successfully spell / use

    “Fissible” and “Disguarded” (Sic)

    I’m disappointed that utter crap is put on the web without some sort of editing

    Former employee and scientist based at Melkbosstrand for 12 years and shoved out by affirmative action – ESKOM deserves what it has let itself in for – Sorry

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