John Hammond sent in an interesting article from the other side of that ugly fence on the Cape St Francis road providing balance to the article we published under Thyspunt in yesterday’s newsletter. A link to the article by Prof Dawid Serfontien, a Nuclear Scientist that appeared in the Mail & Guardian last month can be found at the bottom of this page.

The article is well worth reading to see the issue from a different perspective and as John Hammond says “I believe that Nuclear can and should be a factor in any energy mix. In a perfect world would I choose to have a Nuclear plant on my doorstep? No! But given the amount of research on this subject and the findings in the latest Nuclear EIA report, then Thyspunt looks like a go if the Nuclear option is taken“.

On a slightly different perspective, John continues, “it is very interesting to see the the UK government has recently stopped or reduced its subsidy of both wind and solar power and has given the go ahead on the first new large scale Nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset. This plant will be built by the French in part using Chinese money, an interesting combination”.

South Africa used to be the powerhouse of Africa due in part to our capacity to generate surplus amounts of energy.  A criminal lack of investment by Eskom and decisions by then Minister of Energy Alec Erwin in the 90’s, resulted in today’s load shedding and by extension, a reduction in GDP and he tough trading conditions we find ourselves in today. South Africa had roughly as much generating capacity when the ANC came into power in 1994 as we have now but with Eskom ignoring the need to maintain and replace ageing power stations with new generating capacity for so long, is directly responsible the high unemployment and a reduction in investment by large international and local companies.

“The country needs an energy plan for the next thirty plus years and hence an infrastructure that will assist in the development of jobs, business and the upliftment of our communities”.

“Kouga needs this project due to our high levels of unemployment and while it will impact on our life styles, we do need to start planning how we can can get involved and best manage the impact on our villages. If its not nuclear, then fine, but if it is, then lets make the best we can of the developing senario”.

Article and foreword supplied by John Hammond – edited

The link to the Mail & Guardian article

http://mg.co.za/article/2015-08-13-nuclear-can-pay-its-own-way/

 

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