Environmental groups win big against South Africa nuclear plants

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Secret plans to build new nuclear reactors in South Africa that were never subjected to an open, transparent and public process, have been quashed by a judge in Cape Town in a major victory for anti-nuclear and environmental groups there. David Fig, a leading academic and advocate against nuclear energy, wrote this analysis for The Conversation. The opening paragraphs are below. Read the full article here.

On 26 April 2017, coincidentally the 31^stanniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the Cape High Court presented its judgement on the case brought by Earthlife Africa Johannesburg and the Southern Africa Faith-Communities’ Environmental Institute. The two NGOs were challenging the way in which the state has determined that we should be purchasing 9600 megawatts of extra nuclear power. The judge, Lee Bozalek, used terms like ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’ to refer to the state’s behaviour and declared invalid the steps taken by the state. 

What has been deemed illegal are the state’s determinations that the nuclear build go ahead, its handing over of the procurement process to Eskom, the regulator NERSA’s automatic endorsement of the state’s plans, and the secretive agreement with Russia and two others with the US and South Korea on nuclear co-operation. Eskom’s request for information from nuclear vendors, a step taken to prepare the procurement, which ends on 28 April, is also invalid. 

Government will have to start again on all these procedures if it is serious about going ahead with the nuclear build. To do so legally, it will have to open up the process to detailed public scrutiny. The regulator will have to have a series of public hearings before the country can endorse its historically highest ever spend on infrastructure estimated at well over R1 trillion. The international agreements will have to be brought before the scrutiny of parliament.  Continued.

Westinghouse bankruptcy sparks “negative outlook” for U.S. nuclear construction projects, threatens U.S. taxpayers with $8.3 billion default

Toshiba’s decision to declare bankruptcy for its Westinghouse Electric nuclear power manufacturer continues to send shock waves to global economies at home and abroad. Both Moody's and Standard & Poor’s financial services have downgraded Westinghouse Electric’s partner Santee Cooper and a joint construction project for the completion of V.C. Summer Units 2 and 3 to a “negative” outlook.  Also known as South Carolina Public Service Authority, the power company is a 45% owner along with SCANA for the construction of the two unit Westinghouse AP-1000 power reactor project which is sinking deeper into cost overruns and farther behind scheduled completion.  Additionally, given that the bankruptcy is legally termed as an “event of default,”  the U.S. taxpayer at increased risk to absorb an $8.3 billion federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for the dubious completion of two more Westinghouse AP-1000 units construction in Georgia at Vogtle Units 3 and 4.

Bloomberg reports that the Trump Administration is concerned by the global security issues raised by China’s interest in buying out Westinghouse Electric from Toshiba and is considering directly blocking the sale, encourage an American buyer or an alternative  non-Chinese “friendly” bidder or where the U.S. government itself invests in a bailout much like President Obama did for the U.S. automotive industry. China is already revealed behind nuclear espionage for Westinghouse Electric trade secrets to manufacture its own reactor designs.  The financial collapse of Westinghouse is figured to be part of the scheduled talks between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.