Van Schalkwyk rejects appeals against PBMR pilot fuel plant
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Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Martinus van Schalkwyk has rejected appeals against the establishment of a pilot nuclear-fuel manufacturing plant at Pelindaba, to supply Eskom’s planned pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) demonstration plant, at Koeberg, near Cape Town.
Van Schalkwyk, who released his record of decision (ROD) late Friday afternoon, said that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) complied with the necessary requirements and that the plant would not have a “significant detrimental impact on the environment”, if the conditions under which it was authorised were implemented.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism had received a total of 27 appeals from various organisations and individuals.
The appellants were, among other things, dissatisfied with the EIA process, opposed the consequences of long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste and contaminated materials as well as the environmental impacts associated with the pilot fuel plant in terms of radiological safety and accident scenarios, such as graphite fires and health impacts.
Moreover, appellants also opposed the delinking of the pilot fuel plant and the pebble-bed modular reactor, which were granted RODs simultaneously.
Van Schalkwyk said that the two RODs related to separate projects, which “should have been treated as such from the outset”.
“Although the projects might be related, it is clear that each project could be implemented independently from the other and that they have different implementation schedules. The geographical location, the physical environment and the nature of the environmental impacts and risks of the two projects also differ significantly.”
He noted that two and a half years had elapsed since the issuing of the RODs and that the time lapse warranted an amended ROD.
He added that the PBMR fuel was to be manufactured at the Pelindaba site, which is already licensed for nuclear activities and that the transport of materials for the manufacturing of the fuel and transportation of manufactured fuel would be conducted within well-established practises.
The unease about graphite fires concerned Van Schalkwyk, but he said that Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) stated that no feasible scenarios for such an occurrence existed. Necsa did, however, not totally dismiss the possibility of such fires, but said that the consequences thereof did not include significant radiological release, which was incapable of adequate management.
Source: Engineering News
