Peters promotes Thyspunt

The Energy Minister, Dipuo Peters, promoted the concept of Thyspunt as being the next site for a nuclear power plant during her short visit to Kouga last month to open the area’s second wind farm at Oyster Bay.
While here in the Eastern Cape last month (March 2013) she spoke at three local events and three days later she spoke at the NIASA Energy conference in Cape Town. She had quite a bit to say about Thypsunt, just 10 kms from St Francis Bay.
Not being in a position to inform the public about the future of Thyspunt, she instead reiterated Eskom’s continual firm stance that Thyspunt is clearly the favoured site. However, she never went so far as to say it would definitely happen. Asked quite categorically by St Francis Chronicle if it would she replied:“ Thyspunt will happen if all South Africans pull together”.
She stressed there were several process that had to be worked through and obstacles would need to be overcome before a decision like this could be taken. She also told St Francis Chronicle that no contractor or technology had yet been chosen. When asked for just hint if it was the Chinese, the Koreans or the French, she laughed and said: “ We are still a long way off of that stage.”
In St Francis Bay for one night to woo top business people in Kouga to her cause, Peters said it was important that local businesses and communities started preparing themselves to embrace the economic opportunities that energy-related development would present. “The government would, ideally, like to see the skills, materials, parts (etc) required to build, maintain and operate these projects being procured locally. “Should a project like Thyspunt get the go-ahead, Government would like to see at least 80% of the procurement being done locally (or in SA) and only 20% being sourced from outside.
She told a businessman from Jeffreys Bay who asked what the power plant would do for JBay, that business people must not wait for hand outs. They must get themselves ready to supply what will be needed if the power plant goes ahead.
The dinner was basically the start of the Energy Department’s “public engagement process” to promote nuclear. It is expected that there will be many more engagement processes which are necessary to obtain the proposed energy developments. The latter depend on the buy-in of all stakeholders.
After the dinner most businessmen said they were impressed by Peters and believed that Thyspunt would eventually be a reality.
With Peters at the business dinner was Jepreesh Keshaw director of nuclear policy and technology, who spoke about a four year waiting period before the construction of the power plant could start. He called this period the safety licensing process and acquiring of the necessary infrastructure – a period when nuclear regulators and evaluators examine safety issues and ensure the safety of the site according to the highest international standards. These safety measures and acquisitions need to be in place before the first lot of concrete is poured, he said.
The next day in Humansdorp, Peters again promoted Thyspunt as a site for a nuclear power station, according to Hilton Thorpe who attended. She was accompanied by senior members of the Department of Energy, and by Tony Stott, nuclear spokesman for Eskom. Thorpe says: “She appealed to the public to adopt a positive attitude, believing there were more positives than negatives. She pointed out that we are exposed to natural radiation everywhere; that radiation was used for food preservation, for Xrays and in medicine, and that China was building nuclear power stations as fast as they could.”
She then discussed the process being followed, and the reasons for the long delays in obtaining a Record of Decision from the Department of the Environment. This was a complex process, with many components, and the government was committed to its own legislation in the form of the National Environment Management Act. The third draft environmental impact report should be released sometime between June and August of this year. “There was no discussion of the specific issues which had caused the delays in releasing a Record of Decision.”
The government had still not decided on the specific nuclear technology to be used. All that could be confirmed was that it would be ‘Generation III’ or state-of-the-art technology, says Thorpe..
“Until the ROD had been received, and the specific technology identified, the National Nuclear Regulator could not begin the process of licensing both the site and the technology. This process was expected to take up to four years,” Thorpe reported.
In response to a question on the proposed reduction of emergency planning zones from 16 to 3 kilometres, and the implications of this in terms of responsibility for evacuation in the event of an accident, she handed over to Tony Stott. He gave the background to this proposal, arguing that it derived from the nuclear industry in Europe, and that experts would have to be satisfied that all safety requirements can be met. Responsibility beyond the 3km zone, including compensation, would lie with national government.
The Minister emphasised strongly that the construction of a nuclear power station was a high-tech exercise, requiring very stringent criteria and a highly-skilled workforce. She held out little prospect of employment for unskilled job-seekers, and emphasised efforts being made to provide the necessary training.
She stressed the importance of young people entering the job market to have Matric Maths & Science, and to go on from there to very specific skills training, which could serve them for life, whether in the nuclear or in other high-tech industries.
She also reiterated that the government is totally committed to 23% of all South Africa’s energy being generated by nuclear power. She also made it plain that Eskom would be encouraged to employ local labour but that only skilled labourers would find work with Eskom – labourers such as such as plumbers, electricians and boilermakers.
She encouraged the local labour force to be trained in suitable skills for the project. She challenged the representative from Eskom to consider setting up a training school for the Kouga region prior to the project starting.
She also told attendees in Humansdorp that the Eastern Cape could become a new South African energy hub through the building the Thyspunt nuclear site. She repeated the above points at the NIASA conference in Johannesburg, also indicating that despite increased costs for the nuclear programme the government had budgeted for price increases.

All articles edited or written, all photos taken plus all adverts designed by the Editor and printed in the St Francis Chronicle are protected by the law of Copyright ©.  Reproduction or copying of any part of the contents of this newspaper and its concept and design can only be done with the Editor’s written permission.