[It is extremely rare for me to actually agree with anything the ANC does… so savour this moment!! For once, I actually agree with the ANC. These greenies who hear the word “nuclear” and go ga-ga should be ignored.

Nuclear science is a potentially incredible science with all sorts of amazing possibilities. I needs to be understood and used. Nuclear science is becoming safer. Even the modern nuclear weapons being developed don’t have the fall-out which was the case in older weapons. While “nuclear” is linked to atom bombs… which frankly, have a valid place in weapons arsenals (nobody is going to stop this)… there is another side to nuclear energy.

I once saw a fascinating program on travelling to Mars where a scientist explained that for real interplanetary travel we need nuclear engines. I have even heard the idea being punted of using nuclear explosions for excavations for building dams.

Nuclear energy has its place… and to stand in the way of nuclear science is really stupid. I am all for having a second nuclear reactor in South Africa. Of course it also gives us the ability to produce nuclear bombs… but that’s cool. To be without nuclear weapons in this modern era is to be without a valid deterrent.

Let the Greenies run off and live in caves and strike two rocks together to make a light. Nuclear science could have many spin-offs, if people left scientists and engineers to get on with the job of investigating it properly and devising the relevant controls.

I believe in progress… and for once… I see so too does the ANC. It may be that the ANC (as usual) has a real hidden agenda… There is another news story I will put out about the export of our nuclear technology to Red China. If the USA doesn’t like it… then they should have thought more about keeping South Africa in white hands. Since the ANC has come to power we have exported our best military secrets to Russia and now nuclear secrets to China. If Whites had controlled this country then this strengthening of the communists would not have occurred.
Jan]

Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka was misinformed if she believed nuclear power had a future as an energy source, Earthlife Africa said on Wednesday.

“Nuclear energy is not an option for South Africa,” said Sibusiso Mimi, a campaigner for the organisation in Cape Town.

“The minister has surely overlooked many environmental and human health safety issues which entail great amounts of costs.”

He was reacting to Mlambo-Ngcuka’s statement in Parliament on Tuesday that South Africa needed to wake up to the fact that its coal reserves were dwindling, and the use of nuclear power to produce electricity in the future was unavoidable.

She told MPs nuclear power would increase South Africa’s energy diversity and security of supply, and reduce energy related emission levels because it was a cleaner-burning fuel.

Mimi said the minister was not taking seriously the global movement towards renewable energy and the fact that very few financing institutions were interested in funding nuclear energy.

“It is about time for government to stop narrowly focusing on outdated technology, and to realise that the renewable energy resources are viable in every way possible.”

“At most, the minister is not seriously taking into consideration what is in the best interests of the South African public, the right to clean and safe environment,” Mimi said.

Claire Taylor, an information coordinator at the organisation’s Johannesburg branch, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday that there had not been enough discussion about the storage of nuclear waste. She said that nuclear waste may also infect ground water.

Taylor said her organisation had commissioned a study that showed that about 36 400 people could be employed in the renewable energy sector, compared to the handful of highly skilled people that were now employed in the nuclear energy sector.

South Africa has one nuclear power station, at Koeberg on the West Coast, about 27km north of Cape Town. The plant’s two reactors supply 1 850 megawatts or 6,5% of the country’s electricity needs.

Most of the rest is produced by coal-burning power stations, located mainly in Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday that the South Africa government remained committed to developing it’s pebble bed modular reactor. She said in her Budget vote in the national assembly that she hoped to draw in other departments to help fine-tune the model for the reactor, said Business Report. – Sapa

Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=117659&…/p>