CANE - Coalition Against Nuclear Energy South Africa

A new foreign report casts a further shadow over SA’s troubled nuclear project, but a local research company says there’s no need for alarm. Bobby Jordan reports.

The research centre that invented pebble bed nuclear reactors has rung alarm bells over the safety of the technology — which features prominently in SA’s R350-billion nuclear energy programme.

The safety concerns are contained in a report released this week by the world-renowned state-owned German Jülich Nuclear Research Centre.

Joint-venture company Murray & Roberts SNC-Lavalin Nuclear (MRSLN) has been awarded the contract for the provision of engineering, procurement, project and construction management (EPCM) services for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) demonstration plant project at Koeberg, near Cape Town.

The contract for the provision of the EPCM services was signed on Friday, in Pretoria.

Siseko Njobeni
Johannesburg

THE review of the environmental impact report and public meetings for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) have been delayed, according to the project’s environmental impact assessment consultant.

PBMR, a high temperature reactor with a closed-cycle gas turbine power conversion system, is central to the government’s stated desire to diversify electricity generation mix. The PBMR is also central to Eskom’s plan to double capacity by 2026.

PALISADES, New York, August 21, 2008 (ENS) - The nuclear power plant closest to America’s largest city is more likely to be hit by an earthquake than previously thought because it sits atop a newly identified intersection of two active seismic zones, earthquake scientists warned today.

The Indian Point nuclear power plant, with its two nuclear generating units, is situated 24 miles north of New York City, on the Hudson River at Buchanan, New York.

Fears over France’s nuclear reactors have been raised as the government orders ground water tests at its 58 power stations, after a uranium leak at one polluted local water supplies.

The safety lapse at a plant in Provence run by French nuclear giant Areva has raised questions over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s drive to roll out reactors around the world – in Britain but also in states with less stringent safety norms.