Referencing

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Essay

In this essay I will be exploring the possibility of an earthquake destroying the Koeberg station and causing a nuclear meltdown like the Fukushima power plant that was just destroyed in Japan after an earthquake and tsunami struck it. I will be looking at the possibilities of earthquakes in our area, the history of them and the effects that this country will suffer if an earthquake were to strike near the Koeberg Power Plant. I will be focusing on the discourse, both for and against the possible natural destruction of Koeberg and I will be looking at the theories base around the topic of people potentially ruining the land or saving it from annihilation.

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station was built in 1984 and situated 30 km from Cape Town in Melkbossstrand. Koeberg was designed by a French company called Framatome and is owned by the ‘infamous’ Eskom. The reason that South Africa decided on having a nuclear plant was because they felt it was more economical than constantly transporting fossil fuels, which would have cased unimaginable pollution. The power station is built on 22km² of land which ironically is a nature reserve that houses over 150 species of birds and 6 small animal species; When looking at the nature reserve that Koeberg is situated on, one can refer back to the Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and witness the patter here. “New technologies allowed buildings and roads to be fully segregated from the natural world. In this way human beings were able to enjoy nature as an independent, aesthetic resource.” Le Corbusier thought that by separating people from nature, they can appreciate it when it is untouched. “Nature is finally contained ‘in mans best interests’”. – A perfect example is the nature reserve.
Koeberg has two pressurised water reactors that have 80 million galleons of water pumped into them every second to cool them down. Koeberg is built on a raft of tons of reinforced concrete that is said to withstand a strong earthquake.

Recently, Koeberg has had a lot of maintenance problems and technical difficulties due to so many small little things going wrong: 1) a fault in the transmission causing the reactor to go into safe mode, cutting supply to most of the Western Cape for about two hours on 11 November 2005. 2) 16 November a fire under a transmission line caused the line to trip, resulting in Koeberg once again shutting down. Various parts of the Cape were left without electricity for hours at a time. 3) On Sunday 25 December 2005, the generator of Unit 1 was damaged, after that a loose bolt, which was left inside the generator caused severe damage, forcing it to be shut down. Unit 2 then was also brought down, resulting in a severe shortage of supply to the Western Cape.

Fukushima power plant is situated in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan and is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) started their career by making the Fukushima Power Plant their first project, building it from 1967 to 1971; all six of the power plants reactors were built by General Electric.
Unlike Koeberg, the site that the Fukushima Power Plant is located on a 3.5-square-kilometre (860-acre) site and is divided into two reactor groups which stretch far apart from each other and some even protruding out to sea.

Fukushima has had a lot of technical difficulties themselves (apart from the obvious meltdown recently). They have been accused of submitting fake inspection and repair reports, failing in the overlooking of 32 faults in the 6 reactors. In 2008, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) warned Japan that the Fukushima was built using expired safety guidelines, and could be "serious problem" if an earthquake was to happen in the area. Then of course the earthquake hit causing countless problems and now Fukushima will never be opened again. From explosions to radiation leeks, Fukushima is now dead. It was built incorrectly and has now suffered the consequences. Shove and Warde state that the sociology of consumption are of little interest to the environment and sustainable practices, partly because understanding the simple purchase of an object gives little information on how the object is used for energy and other recourses – according to Eskom – they did extensive research and looked at the flaws and the succeeding of other power plants before building Koeberg, whereas Fukushima is more than 40 years old and was not built with great prior knowledge behind it and the plant was TEPCO’s first ‘project’.
The age of enlightenment – ‘clearing forests, making ditches, planting crops and mining were not only means for making wealth out of wasteland. They were seen as making a new kind of person.’ Building power stations can be seen as polluting the planet and ruining ‘precious land’ by some people but at then end of the day, without these power plants, people wouldn’t be able to have the technology and the say that they have today over such a wide mass of people. Therefore in a way, power plants like Koeberg are their own person – giving light to others.

On the 11 March 2011 at 14:46:23 a 9.0 earthquake struck 72 km off the East coast of Japan, causing a tsunami 39.7 meters and killing +- 15,000 people and destroying 125, 000 buildings. The Fukushima power plant was on the East coast and was the most affected by this terrible natural disaster. Everyone was so shocked that this ‘well-built’ infrastructure was so easily destroyed. Buildings that were built to withstand earthquakes crumbled to the ground and explosions occurred at the nuclear power plant causing toxic levels of radiation to seep out into food and the air; resulting in the evacuation of people within a 20 km radius.
Darwin states that individuals have characteristics that enable them to survive – resulting in endless improvement, however when climate change strikes and nature turns on humans – the concept of survival and evolution is non-existent and nature will always win in every circumstance. The tragic events that occurred in Japan is a perfect example of this theory – no matter how good technology is or how well buildings have been erected – no one can prepare themselves enough for the wrath of mother nature.

The date is Friday 4th December 1808 and the earth shook in South Africa – Milnerton. The reason for this earthquake was the Milnerton fault line that runs from about 8 km offshore of the Koeberg power station. (The deeper the epicentre of an earthquake is, the more destruction is called and the more it can be felt. Since 1808, several earthquakes in Cape Town alone have been recorded, even a small one in May 2009.)
An historian that was in Milnerton at the time wrote a journal entry “Near the Kraal I found rents and fissures in the ground, one of which I followed for about the extent of a mile. In some places they were more than an inch wide, and in others much less. In many places I was able to push into them, in a perpendicular direction, a switch to its full length, of three or four feet. By the people residing in the vicinity, I was informed, that they had observed these fissures on the morning of the 5th December, in some instances three and four inches wide, and that one person had been able to push the whole length of an iron rod used to fix curtains upon them, and that others had been able to do the same with whip handles of even ten feet in length.” The Ascot racecourse is now there – as if nothing ever happened or will happen again.

The date is 29th September 1969 and the earth shook again with a 6.5 magnitude earthquake – bigger than the one recently in Christchurch. 11 people died and infrastructure was ruined. It is also estimated to have caused a displacement of 26 cm over a distance of 20km.

This earthquake could be from the Augrabies fault that runs a long South Africa that cause many minor tremors – most that people never feel but nonetheless – they’re still there. Scientists say that the crust is unstable and is very stressed – critically, especially in Southern Africa. All of this volcanic rock is pulling the crust apart, especially in the mountainous parts like Ceres and Tulbagh. South Africa is also the country that has the biggest landmass underneath it compared to any other country – causing a lot of pressure and unwanted movement in the rocks.
A few years ago there was that huge earthquake in Indonesia that was 6.7 magnitude. Villages that were situated on the East African coast were washed away and the waves in Cape Town and along the South African coast were said to be abnormal. Indonesia is 2000 km away. Koeberg is 8 km away.

The earthquake that shook Cape Town in 1808 has still left its mark today – the sediments that are surrounding Koeberg were shaken and the grains were moved which in turn released water between them, which has ridden to the surface. However, the electricity utility's operations and planning division MD, Kannan Lakmeeharam has stated that Koeberg is built on a ‘raft’ that can withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and “ you've got to look at what is the history of seismic activity in South Africa, and whether that design is sufficient.”
South African seismologist’s state that the earthquake risk is, “rare, but a very real threat for Cape Town”.

This might be easy to believe for some but one needs to realise that the Japanese seismologist’s did not see the earthquake coming and were also certain that their infrastructure could withstand any earthquake. Furthermore, the earthquake that hit Japan was 72km away from the Fukushima Power Plant; experts say that if an earthquake hit Cape Town, it would be along the Milnerton fault or Augrabies. The Milnerton fault is 8 km from Koeberg Power Station – a very short distance away, so for Eskom to state that the power plant would be fine is a very bold statement. Cynthia Dreyer, editor of Madibeng Paulse, a newspaper for the area of Madibeng says that neither South Africa’s Pelindaba nuclear-enrichment plant near Pretoria nor Koeberg nuclear-power plant north of Cape Town have any emergency evacuation plans. Yet these are two ticking nuclear time bombs: Pelindaba is built on top of an aquifer, Koeberg straddles the increasingly active Augrabies fault line…”

The aim was to keep the population around Koeberg to the bare minimum incase there had to be an emergency evacuation or radiation leak however, Atlantis and Melkbosstrand, are right next to Koeberg’s outer fences. Experts have already warned in 2000 that within fifteen years, it would take up to 19 hours to evacuate the population in a 16km radius of the plant in case of a nuclear emergency. The Cape Flats is situated on the fault line houses thousands of people (40000 people coming in a month). Why don’t the authorities actually stop these people from coming in by the thousands to avoid problems that will occur if there is an earthquake or natural disaster? The only building besides Koeberg said to be able to withstand an earthquake is the Rietvlei centre.

When one focuses on Enlightenment and the theories around it, one can see that modern theory has deduced that it can be used as a type/form of domination – where the powerful people (Eskom, the Government, MP’s) can use scientific information and their ‘general knowledge’ as a way of promoting themselves and making those that are less knowledgeable and vulnerable believe what they are saying. After doing research on the feedback to Eskom’s comments that “the design would mean Koeberg could withstand an earthquake of 7” – it is extremely evident that the people of Cape Town and even South Africa are very doubtful of what Eskom have to say. Furthermore, Eskom has just signed a R3, 4 million contracts with Saatchi to improve their image! Goes to show how desperate they are for people to try and get them to be trusted after all the ‘miscommunication’ before.

After the earthquake in Japan and the nuclear meltdown they are experiencing, people have become a bit more aware of nuclear energy and the effects that it can potentially have on people if something were to go wrong. There are now polar extremes on either side of the world… South Africa and Germany. Germany are shutting down seven nuclear power plants that were built before the 1980’s and will never start them up again after Japan’s incident.
South Africa on the other hand is planning on doubling the nuclear power capacity and has decided to expand Koeberg, adding more power stations. Public Enterprises Alec Erwin states that “South Africa is to build a second nuclear power station as part of a multi-billion rand plan to meet the surging demand for electricity fuelled by the country's economic growth.” What can cause people to have such an opposite reaction to something that can potentially be so big? ZME Science says –“South African officials don’t seem to let nature intimidate them. As such, South Africa’s cabinet ratified a controversial 20-year Integrated Resource Plan that calls for nuclear power to fuel nearly a quarter of the country’s new electricity production in the future.

So… One country shuts down half their power stations and another country wants to double them. Only time will tell whether any of these decisions is actually the correct one or not. This thought could lead to looking at Marxism and environmental sociology; this states that environmental degradation may have something to do with the fact that it is impossible to control an advanced industrial system. Is this what Germany is seeing and South Africa is completely missing? Earthquakes and tsunamis are not man made, therefore it is impossible to actually know whether ones decisions and actions were/are the right ones or not.

A company called Heinrich Böll who is involved in civic education in Germany and open to political foundations have become very involved with the possibility of earthquakes around the world and have stated a few very interesting things such as: “The Koeberg nuclear power station sits 8km from the offshore Milnerton Fault, and was built to withstand an earthquake rated at 7 on the Richter scale. The last big earthquake at this fault was in 1809 and was estimated at 6.5. It is possible that earthquakes at 8 on the Richter scale could occur.”
Now that all the earthquakes have been discussed, lets look at nuclear problems that have occurred; radiation, Chernobyl cancer… The negatives are endless. But does nuclear energy have to be seen in such a negative light.

Greenpeace thinks that we need an energy method that can fight climate change, based on renewable energy. Nuclear power delivers less energy globally than renewable energy. The thing that I think is the most scary thought when it comes to nuclear power plants is the thought of another Chernobyl disaster and after the Japan earthquake and tsunami it has become a lot clearer on how much easier it is than what people expected.
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 in the Ukraine. It was predicted that there was 30,000 to 60,000 cancer deaths and 985,000 extra deaths occurred between 1986 and 2004 because of radioactive contamination. Japan was very close to having Chernobyl no.2 from their Fukushima power plant! There is an international scale for nuclear accidents developed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has ranked the Japan disaster at a 6 on a 7-step scale for nuclear accidents. Chernobyl was a 7; therefore it is highly serious. The actual radiation only started leaking out 3 days after the earthquake – on the 15th March. The nuclear waste, which was stored in a pool near the reactor, evaporated – thus causing the radiation to evaporate into the air – radiation that has iodine and cesium in them – cancer causing agents. These radiation levels were 1000 times the normal levels, which caused the hydrogen explosions that sent the debris 1000 feet in the air.

There are however, a few differences: Chernobyl were going through an economic meltdown at the time and had no money – therefore no recourses to minimize the effects that it had on the people for generations to come. 5000 people rallied in the streets of Japan to use alternative sources of energy that were clean and renewable. At least people that have a voice are speaking up and trying to make people aware of the troubles that South Africa and other countries could face if something terrible like an earthquake were to happen in some cases if there were on or near a power plant.

There are over 51 nuclear power plants in Japan and only 10% of energy is produced from oil. Steve Kerekes, a spokesperson says that the reason for having so many nuclear plants are: nuclear plants provide around the clock power and it is cheaper.
At least people that have a voice are speaking up and trying to make people aware of the troubles that South Africa and other countries could face if something terrible like an earthquake were to happen in some cases if there were on or near a power plant.

Koeberg is the only nuclear power plant in South Africa and the reason that a nuclear power plant was built because they believed that fossil fuels would cause way too much pollution and unnecessary dumping, also having to build more too, costing more money. The World Nuclear Foundation states “South Africa’s main coal reserves are concentrated in Mpumalanga in the Northeast, while much of the load is on the coast near Cape Town and Durban. Moving either coal or electricity long distance is inefficient, so it was decided to build some 1800 MWe of nuclear capacity at Koeberg.” When one looks at critical realism it states that environmental change indicates that human society is having an impact in the development of humans and species and how they are operating and as a result these humans and species (animals, nature etc.) are being affected in sometimes, disastrous ways. For example: If one looks at the one side of climate change as being caused by humans and their ‘disrespect’ for the planet then one could argue that therefore we ‘caused’ the earthquake, which in turn with the ripple effect caused the tsunami which destroyed the nuclear power station making millions of people homeless and killing thousands. On the other hand, if one looks at the problems Koeberg has had – Vandalism by the ANC in the 90’s causing up to R50 million worth of damage or the metal bolt that was found inside a critical component of the nuclear reactor. This is not nature’s fault; this is ignorance by the maintenance staff. Therefore, even though this maintenance ignorance is only causing black outs and minor glitches, all these little problems cold be added up and if something naturally fatal were to happen i.e. earthquakes and tsunamis, the same could happen to Koeberg as what happened to Fukushima.
Papadakis states that communication makes society a reality – one cant help but wonder if the communication within the Fukushima plant was more honest and thorough – would that much damage of actually been caused and therefore, are all these secrets and cover ups going on about Koeberg not just a ticking time bomb for something serious to happen and it will be too late to do anything about it?

Newton established the laws underlying the earth’s structure (the universes law of gravity). Locke was a prophet of modern science and wanted to ensure the most progressive ownership was made of this science. One can take the building of Nuclear power plants and the maintenance problems surrounding it and relate it directly to Locke and the way he thought about things from a scientific point of view.
There quite a few campaigns that surround this issue on a global basis but the two most prominent ones would be in Australia (Don’t Nuke The Climate Campaign) and Germany (Greenpeace) and. Greenpeace believe in fighting against nuclear power as it is a risk to the environment and humankind. Their solution to this problem is to shut down all existing power plants. “Nuclear power plants are, next to nuclear warheads themselves, the most dangerous devices that man has ever created. Their construction and proliferation is the most irresponsible, in fact the most criminal act ever to have taken place on this planet” - Patrick Moore, Assault on Future Generations, 1976.

WST states that societies remain fixed to some economic and social levels and the economic growth will not overcome environmental degradation. This is being seen in Germany at the moment – they are demolishing all nuclear plants that were built before 1980 as they feel that they are too much of an environmental risk – by doing this they are ignoring the backlash of the economy and the economic consequences that may be bought on by this task and are putting their future generations in the forefront of their minds by trying to save the environment.

A really effective campaign in South Africa is Earthlife Africa, which is a NGO that exposes the people that trying to disgrace the environment. Right now hundreds of people are protesting outside the Department of Energy in Pretoria about the consequences of nuclear power and nuclear waste and are trying to get the government and people higher up in the economic chain to realise the consequences that building nuclear plants in South Africa can have on the people and the environment.

“What the good life consists of should not concern governments; that is the matter of the individuals”
Everyone has their own views and feelings when it comes to energy, the environment and how we use it. Individuals can care on their own or in groups and have the right to say and feel anything they want to but the government in this case is not trying to better the life of the people and the country now and for future generations. With nature unfortunately a lot of negatives can come from one positive. Nuclear waste is also a big concern that all of these campaigns are focussing on – it can remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years leaving poison in so many things that we might not be affected by but our future generations will. What people are doing now is burying the nuclear waste far down in the ground, thus not making people or the atmosphere toxic.

So, after examining in great death the threats that can be caused by natural disasters that cannot be predicted and the long term effects that these seemingly small warnings can have on the environment one can see that the earth is constantly evolving, changing and shifting and sometimes no matter how advanced our technology Is or how knowledgeable our scientists and maintenance workers are, we are susceptible to great harm at any point in our lives. No one expected this terrible thing to happen to the Fukushima power plant and no one expects there to be another serious earthquake in South Africa, however if there is one, the consequences will be dire. People that have the power to change the future of whole countries and their future generations should put their best foot foreword and do something while there is still sufficient time. Personally, I believe what Germany are doing us for the best, if they can find alternative forms of energy and make that work then why cant everyone else? In a way, what happened recently in Japan is a blessing in disguise for future humans and species as it has opened the eyes of some people who were completely ignorant before. Let’s just hope that the Milnerton fault and the Augrabies fault stay calm for the mean time and the government make the right decisions in what will be best for their future children and not what is best for the size of their wallets as after doing extensive research, radiation poisoning and nuclear disasters are extremely serious killers and their affects can be felt for decades after the fact.

Essay

In this essay I will be exploring the possibility of an earthquake destroying the Koeberg station and causing a nuclear meltdown like the Fukushima power plant that was just destroyed in Japan after an earthquake and tsunami struck it. I will be looking at the possibilities of earthquakes in our area, the history of them and the effects that this country will suffer if an earthquake were to strike near the Koeberg Power Plant. I will be focusing on the discourse, both for and against the possible natural destruction of Koeberg and I will be looking at the theories base around the topic of people potentially ruining the land or saving it from annihilation.

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station was built in 1984 and situated 30 km from Cape Town in Melkbossstrand. Koeberg was designed by a French company called Framatome and is owned by the ‘infamous’ Eskom. The reason that South Africa decided on having a nuclear plant was because they felt it was more economical than constantly transporting fossil fuels, which would have cased unimaginable pollution. The power station is built on 22km² of land which ironically is a nature reserve that houses over 150 species of birds and 6 small animal species; When looking at the nature reserve that Koeberg is situated on, one can refer back to the Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and witness the patter here. “New technologies allowed buildings and roads to be fully segregated from the natural world. In this way human beings were able to enjoy nature as an independent, aesthetic resource.” Le Corbusier thought that by separating people from nature, they can appreciate it when it is untouched. “Nature is finally contained ‘in mans best interests’”. – A perfect example is the nature reserve.
Koeberg has two pressurised water reactors that have 80 million galleons of water pumped into them every second to cool them down. Koeberg is built on a raft of tons of reinforced concrete that is said to withstand a strong earthquake.

Recently, Koeberg has had a lot of maintenance problems and technical difficulties due to so many small little things going wrong: 1) a fault in the transmission causing the reactor to go into safe mode, cutting supply to most of the Western Cape for about two hours on 11 November 2005. 2) 16 November a fire under a transmission line caused the line to trip, resulting in Koeberg once again shutting down. Various parts of the Cape were left without electricity for hours at a time. 3) On Sunday 25 December 2005, the generator of Unit 1 was damaged, after that a loose bolt, which was left inside the generator caused severe damage, forcing it to be shut down. Unit 2 then was also brought down, resulting in a severe shortage of supply to the Western Cape.

Fukushima power plant is situated in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan and is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) started their career by making the Fukushima Power Plant their first project, building it from 1967 to 1971; all six of the power plants reactors were built by General Electric.
Unlike Koeberg, the site that the Fukushima Power Plant is located on a 3.5-square-kilometre (860-acre) site and is divided into two reactor groups which stretch far apart from each other and some even protruding out to sea.

Fukushima has had a lot of technical difficulties themselves (apart from the obvious meltdown recently). They have been accused of submitting fake inspection and repair reports, failing in the overlooking of 32 faults in the 6 reactors. In 2008, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) warned Japan that the Fukushima was built using expired safety guidelines, and could be "serious problem" if an earthquake was to happen in the area. Then of course the earthquake hit causing countless problems and now Fukushima will never be opened again. From explosions to radiation leeks, Fukushima is now dead. It was built incorrectly and has now suffered the consequences. Shove and Warde state that the sociology of consumption are of little interest to the environment and sustainable practices, partly because understanding the simple purchase of an object gives little information on how the object is used for energy and other recourses – according to Eskom – they did extensive research and looked at the flaws and the succeeding of other power plants before building Koeberg, whereas Fukushima is more than 40 years old and was not built with great prior knowledge behind it and the plant was TEPCO’s first ‘project’.
The age of enlightenment – ‘clearing forests, making ditches, planting crops and mining were not only means for making wealth out of wasteland. They were seen as making a new kind of person.’ Building power stations can be seen as polluting the planet and ruining ‘precious land’ by some people but at then end of the day, without these power plants, people wouldn’t be able to have the technology and the say that they have today over such a wide mass of people. Therefore in a way, power plants like Koeberg are their own person – giving light to others.

On the 11 March 2011 at 14:46:23 a 9.0 earthquake struck 72 km off the East coast of Japan, causing a tsunami 39.7 meters and killing +- 15,000 people and destroying 125, 000 buildings. The Fukushima power plant was on the East coast and was the most affected by this terrible natural disaster. Everyone was so shocked that this ‘well-built’ infrastructure was so easily destroyed. Buildings that were built to withstand earthquakes crumbled to the ground and explosions occurred at the nuclear power plant causing toxic levels of radiation to seep out into food and the air; resulting in the evacuation of people within a 20 km radius.
Darwin states that individuals have characteristics that enable them to survive – resulting in endless improvement, however when climate change strikes and nature turns on humans – the concept of survival and evolution is non-existent and nature will always win in every circumstance. The tragic events that occurred in Japan is a perfect example of this theory – no matter how good technology is or how well buildings have been erected – no one can prepare themselves enough for the wrath of mother nature.

The date is Friday 4th December 1808 and the earth shook in South Africa – Milnerton. The reason for this earthquake was the Milnerton fault line that runs from about 8 km offshore of the Koeberg power station. (The deeper the epicentre of an earthquake is, the more destruction is called and the more it can be felt. Since 1808, several earthquakes in Cape Town alone have been recorded, even a small one in May 2009.)
An historian that was in Milnerton at the time wrote a journal entry “Near the Kraal I found rents and fissures in the ground, one of which I followed for about the extent of a mile. In some places they were more than an inch wide, and in others much less. In many places I was able to push into them, in a perpendicular direction, a switch to its full length, of three or four feet. By the people residing in the vicinity, I was informed, that they had observed these fissures on the morning of the 5th December, in some instances three and four inches wide, and that one person had been able to push the whole length of an iron rod used to fix curtains upon them, and that others had been able to do the same with whip handles of even ten feet in length.” The Ascot racecourse is now there – as if nothing ever happened or will happen again.
The date is 29th September 1969 and the earth shook again with a 6.5 magnitude earthquake – bigger than the one recently in Christchurch. 11 people died and infrastructure was ruined. It is also estimated to have caused a displacement of 26 cm over a distance of 20km. This earthquake could be from the Augrabies fault that runs a long South Africa that cause many minor tremors – most that people never feel but nonetheless – they’re still there. Scientists say that the crust is unstable and is very stressed – critically, especially in Southern Africa. All of this volcanic rock is pulling the crust apart, especially in the mountainous parts like Ceres and Tulbagh. South Africa is also the country that has the biggest landmass underneath it compared to any other country – causing a lot of pressure and unwanted movement in the rocks.
A few years ago there was that huge earthquake in Indonesia that was 6.7 magnitude. Villages that were situated on the East African coast were washed away and the waves in Cape Town and along the South African coast were said to be abnormal. Indonesia is 2000 km away. Koeberg is 8 km away.

The earthquake that shook Cape Town in 1808 has still left its mark today – the sediments that are surrounding Koeberg were shaken and the grains were moved which in turn released water between them, which has ridden to the surface. However, the electricity utility's operations and planning division MD, Kannan Lakmeeharam has stated that Koeberg is built on a ‘raft’ that can withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and “ you've got to look at what is the history of seismic activity in South Africa, and whether that design is sufficient.”
South African seismologist’s state that the earthquake risk is, “rare, but a very real threat for Cape Town”.
This might be easy to believe for some but one needs to realise that the Japanese seismologist’s did not see the earthquake coming and were also certain that their infrastructure could withstand any earthquake. Furthermore, the earthquake that hit Japan was 72km away from the Fukushima Power Plant; experts say that if an earthquake hit Cape Town, it would be along the Milnerton fault or Augrabies. The Milnerton fault is 8 km from Koeberg Power Station – a very short distance away, so for Eskom to state that the power plant would be fine is a very bold statement. Cynthia Dreyer, editor of Madibeng Paulse, a newspaper for the area of Madibeng says that neither South Africa’s Pelindaba nuclear-enrichment plant near Pretoria nor Koeberg nuclear-power plant north of Cape Town have any emergency evacuation plans. Yet these are two ticking nuclear time bombs: Pelindaba is built on top of an aquifer, Koeberg straddles the increasingly active Augrabies fault line…”

The aim was to keep the population around Koeberg to the bare minimum incase there had to be an emergency evacuation or radiation leak however, Atlantis and Melkbosstrand, are right next to Koeberg’s outer fences. Experts have already warned in 2000 that within fifteen years, it would take up to 19 hours to evacuate the population in a 16km radius of the plant in case of a nuclear emergency. The Cape Flats is situated on the fault line houses thousands of people (40000 people coming in a month). Why don’t the authorities actually stop these people from coming in by the thousands to avoid problems that will occur if there is an earthquake or natural disaster? The only building besides Koeberg said to be able to withstand an earthquake is the Rietvlei centre.
When one focuses on Enlightenment and the theories around it, one can see that modern theory has deduced that it can be used as a type/form of domination – where the powerful people (Eskom, the Government, MP’s) can use scientific information and their ‘general knowledge’ as a way of promoting themselves and making those that are less knowledgeable and vulnerable believe what they are saying. After doing research on the feedback to Eskom’s comments that “the design would mean Koeberg could withstand an earthquake of 7” – it is extremely evident that the people of Cape Town and even South Africa are very doubtful of what Eskom have to say. Furthermore, Eskom has just signed a R3, 4 million contracts with Saatchi to improve their image! Goes to show how desperate they are for people to try and get them to be trusted after all the ‘miscommunication’ before.

After the earthquake in Japan and the nuclear meltdown they are experiencing, people have become a bit more aware of nuclear energy and the effects that it can potentially have on people if something were to go wrong. There are now polar extremes on either side of the world… South Africa and Germany. Germany are shutting down seven nuclear power plants that were built before the 1980’s and will never start them up again after Japan’s incident.
South Africa on the other hand is planning on doubling the nuclear power capacity and has decided to expand Koeberg, adding more power stations. Public Enterprises Alec Erwin states that “South Africa is to build a second nuclear power station as part of a multi-billion rand plan to meet the surging demand for electricity fuelled by the country's economic growth.” What can cause people to have such an opposite reaction to something that can potentially be so big? ZME Science says –“South African officials don’t seem to let nature intimidate them. As such, South Africa’s cabinet ratified a controversial 20-year Integrated Resource Plan that calls for nuclear power to fuel nearly a quarter of the country’s new electricity production in the future.

So… One country shuts down half their power stations and another country wants to double them. Only time will tell whether any of these decisions is actually the correct one or not. This thought could lead to looking at Marxism and environmental sociology; this states that environmental degradation may have something to do with the fact that it is impossible to control an advanced industrial system. Is this what Germany is seeing and South Africa is completely missing? Earthquakes and tsunamis are not man made, therefore it is impossible to actually know whether ones decisions and actions were/are the right ones or not.
A company called Heinrich Böll who is involved in civic education in Germany and open to political foundations have become very involved with the possibility of earthquakes around the world and have stated a few very interesting things such as: “The Koeberg nuclear power station sits 8km from the offshore Milnerton Fault, and was built to withstand an earthquake rated at 7 on the Richter scale. The last big earthquake at this fault was in 1809 and was estimated at 6.5. It is possible that earthquakes at 8 on the Richter scale could occur.”
Now that all the earthquakes have been discussed, lets look at nuclear problems that have occurred; radiation, Chernobyl cancer… The negatives are endless. But does nuclear energy have to be seen in such a negative light.

Greenpeace thinks that we need an energy method that can fight climate change, based on renewable energy. Nuclear power delivers less energy globally than renewable energy. The thing that I think is the most scary thought when it comes to nuclear power plants is the thought of another Chernobyl disaster and after the Japan earthquake and tsunami it has become a lot clearer on how much easier it is than what people expected.
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 in the Ukraine. It was predicted that there was 30,000 to 60,000 cancer deaths and 985,000 extra deaths occurred between 1986 and 2004 because of radioactive contamination. Japan was very close to having Chernobyl no.2 from their Fukushima power plant! There is an international scale for nuclear accidents developed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has ranked the Japan disaster at a 6 on a 7-step scale for nuclear accidents. Chernobyl was a 7; therefore it is highly serious. The actual radiation only started leaking out 3 days after the earthquake – on the 15th March. The nuclear waste, which was stored in a pool near the reactor, evaporated – thus causing the radiation to evaporate into the air – radiation that has iodine and cesium in them – cancer causing agents. These radiation levels were 1000 times the normal levels, which caused the hydrogen explosions that sent the debris 1000 feet in the air.
There are however, a few differences: Chernobyl were going through an economic meltdown at the time and had no money – therefore no recourses to minimize the effects that it had on the people for generations to come. 5000 people rallied in the streets of Japan to use alternative sources of energy that were clean and renewable. At least people that have a voice are speaking up and trying to make people aware of the troubles that South Africa and other countries could face if something terrible like an earthquake were to happen in some cases if there were on or near a power plant.

There are over 51 nuclear power plants in Japan and only 10% of energy is produced from oil. Steve Kerekes, a spokesperson says that the reason for having so many nuclear plants are: nuclear plants provide around the clock power and it is cheaper.
At least people that have a voice are speaking up and trying to make people aware of the troubles that South Africa and other countries could face if something terrible like an earthquake were to happen in some cases if there were on or near a power plant.
Koeberg is the only nuclear power plant in South Africa and the reason that a nuclear power plant was built because they believed that fossil fuels would cause way too much pollution and unnecessary dumping, also having to build more too, costing more money. The World Nuclear Foundation states “South Africa’s main coal reserves are concentrated in Mpumalanga in the Northeast, while much of the load is on the coast near Cape Town and Durban. Moving either coal or electricity long distance is inefficient, so it was decided to build some 1800 MWe of nuclear capacity at Koeberg.” When one looks at critical realism it states that environmental change indicates that human society is having an impact in the development of humans and species and how they are operating and as a result these humans and species (animals, nature etc.) are being affected in sometimes, disastrous ways. For example: If one looks at the one side of climate change as being caused by humans and their ‘disrespect’ for the planet then one could argue that therefore we ‘caused’ the earthquake, which in turn with the ripple effect caused the tsunami which destroyed the nuclear power station making millions of people homeless and killing thousands. On the other hand, if one looks at the problems Koeberg has had – Vandalism by the ANC in the 90’s causing up to R50 million worth of damage or the metal bolt that was found inside a critical component of the nuclear reactor. This is not nature’s fault; this is ignorance by the maintenance staff. Therefore, even though this maintenance ignorance is only causing black outs and minor glitches, all these little problems cold be added up and if something naturally fatal were to happen i.e. earthquakes and tsunamis, the same could happen to Koeberg as what happened to Fukushima. Papadakis states that communication makes society a reality – one cant help but wonder if the communication within the Fukushima plant was more honest and thorough – would that much damage of actually been caused and therefore, are all these secrets and cover ups going on about Koeberg not just a ticking time bomb for something serious to happen and it will be too late to do anything about it?

Newton established the laws underlying the earth’s structure (the universes law of gravity). Locke was a prophet of modern science and wanted to ensure the most progressive ownership was made of this science. One can take the building of Nuclear power plants and the maintenance problems surrounding it and relate it directly to Locke and the way he thought about things from a scientific point of view.
There quite a few campaigns that surround this issue on a global basis but the two most prominent ones would be in Australia (Don’t Nuke The Climate Campaign) and Germany (Greenpeace) and. Greenpeace believe in fighting against nuclear power as it is a risk to the environment and humankind. Their solution to this problem is to shut down all existing power plants. “Nuclear power plants are, next to nuclear warheads themselves, the most dangerous devices that man has ever created. Their construction and proliferation is the most irresponsible, in fact the most criminal act ever to have taken place on this planet” - Patrick Moore, Assault on Future Generations, 1976.

WST states that societies remain fixed to some economic and social levels and the economic growth will not overcome environmental degradation. This is being seen in Germany at the moment – they are demolishing all nuclear plants that were built before 1980 as they feel that they are too much of an environmental risk – by doing this they are ignoring the backlash of the economy and the economic consequences that may be bought on by this task and are putting their future generations in the forefront of their minds by trying to save the environment.
A really effective campaign in South Africa is Earthlife Africa, which is a NGO that exposes the people that trying to disgrace the environment. Right now hundreds of people are protesting outside the Department of Energy in Pretoria about the consequences of nuclear power and nuclear waste and are trying to get the government and people higher up in the economic chain to realise the consequences that building nuclear plants in South Africa can have on the people and the environment.

“What the good life consists of should not concern governments; that is the matter of the individuals”
Everyone has their own views and feelings when it comes to energy, the environment and how we use it. Individuals can care on their own or in groups and have the right to say and feel anything they want to but the government in this case is not trying to better the life of the people and the country now and for future generations. With nature unfortunately a lot of negatives can come from one positive. Nuclear waste is also a big concern that all of these campaigns are focussing on – it can remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years leaving poison in so many things that we might not be affected by but our future generations will. What people are doing now is burying the nuclear waste far down in the ground, thus not making people or the atmosphere toxic.

So, after examining in great death the threats that can be caused by natural disasters that cannot be predicted and the long term effects that these seemingly small warnings can have on the environment one can see that the earth is constantly evolving, changing and shifting and sometimes no matter how advanced our technology Is or how knowledgeable our scientists and maintenance workers are, we are susceptible to great harm at any point in our lives. No one expected this terrible thing to happen to the Fukushima power plant and no one expects there to be another serious earthquake in South Africa, however if there is one, the consequences will be dire. People that have the power to change the future of whole countries and their future generations should put their best foot foreword and do something while there is still sufficient time. Personally, I believe what Germany are doing us for the best, if they can find alternative forms of energy and make that work then why cant everyone else? In a way, what happened recently in Japan is a blessing in disguise for future humans and species as it has opened the eyes of some people who were completely ignorant before. Let’s just hope that the Milnerton fault and the Augrabies fault stay calm for the mean time and the government make the right decisions in what will be best for their future children and not what is best for the size of their wallets as after doing extensive research, radiation poisoning and nuclear disasters are extremely serious killers and their affects can be felt for decades after the fact.

In this essay I will be exploring the possibility of an earthquake destroying the Koeberg station and causing a nuclear meltdown like the Fukushima power plant that was just destroyed in Japan after an earthquake and tsunami struck it. I will be looking at the possibilities of earthquakes in our area, the history of them and the effects that this country will suffer if an earthquake were to strike near the Koeberg Power Plant. I will be focusing on the discourse, both for and against the possible natural destruction of Koeberg and I will be looking at the theories base around the topic of people potentially ruining the land or saving it from annihilation.
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station was built in 1984 and situated 30 km from Cape Town in Melkbossstrand. Koeberg was designed by a French company called Framatome and is owned by the ‘infamous’ Eskom. The reason that South Africa decided on having a nuclear plant was because they felt it was more economical than constantly transporting fossil fuels, which would have cased unimaginable pollution. The power station is built on 22km² of land which ironically is a nature reserve that houses over 150 species of birds and 6 small animal species; When looking at the nature reserve that Koeberg is situated on, one can refer back to the Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) and witness the patter here. “New technologies allowed buildings and roads to be fully segregated from the natural world. In this way human beings were able to enjoy nature as an independent, aesthetic resource.” Le Corbusier thought that by separating people from nature, they can appreciate it when it is untouched. “Nature is finally contained ‘in mans best interests’”. – A perfect example is the nature reserve.
Koeberg has two pressurised water reactors that have 80 million galleons of water pumped into them every second to cool them down. Koeberg is built on a raft of tons of reinforced concrete that is said to withstand a strong earthquake.
Recently, Koeberg has had a lot of maintenance problems and technical difficulties due to so many small little things going wrong: 1) a fault in the transmission causing the reactor to go into safe mode, cutting supply to most of the Western Cape for about two hours on 11 November 2005. 2) 16 November a fire under a transmission line caused the line to trip, resulting in Koeberg once again shutting down. Various parts of the Cape were left without electricity for hours at a time. 3) On Sunday 25 December 2005, the generator of Unit 1 was damaged, after that a loose bolt, which was left inside the generator caused severe damage, forcing it to be shut down. Unit 2 then was also brought down, resulting in a severe shortage of supply to the Western Cape.
Fukushima power plant is situated in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan and is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) started their career by making the Fukushima Power Plant their first project, building it from 1967 to 1971; all six of the power plants reactors were built by General Electric.
Unlike Koeberg, the site that the Fukushima Power Plant is located on a 3.5-square-kilometre (860-acre) site and is divided into two reactor groups which stretch far apart from each other and some even protruding out to sea.
Fukushima has had a lot of technical difficulties themselves (apart from the obvious meltdown recently). They have been accused of submitting fake inspection and repair reports, failing in the overlooking of 32 faults in the 6 reactors. In 2008, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) warned Japan that the Fukushima was built using expired safety guidelines, and could be "serious problem" if an earthquake was to happen in the area. Then of course the earthquake hit causing countless problems and now Fukushima will never be opened again. From explosions to radiation leeks, Fukushima is now dead. It was built incorrectly and has now suffered the consequences. Shove and Warde state that the sociology of consumption are of little interest to the environment and sustainable practices, partly because understanding the simple purchase of an object gives little information on how the object is used for energy and other recourses – according to Eskom – they did extensive research and looked at the flaws and the succeeding of other power plants before building Koeberg, whereas Fukushima is more than 40 years old and was not built with great prior knowledge behind it and the plant was TEPCO’s first ‘project’.
The age of enlightenment – ‘clearing forests, making ditches, planting crops and mining were not only means for making wealth out of wasteland. They were seen as making a new kind of person.’ Building power stations can be seen as polluting the planet and ruining ‘precious land’ by some people but at then end of the day, without these power plants, people wouldn’t be able to have the technology and the say that they have today over such a wide mass of people. Therefore in a way, power plants like Koeberg are their own person – giving light to others.
On the 11 March 2011 at 14:46:23 a 9.0 earthquake struck 72 km off the East coast of Japan, causing a tsunami 39.7 meters and killing +- 15,000 people and destroying 125, 000 buildings. The Fukushima power plant was on the East coast and was the most affected by this terrible natural disaster. Everyone was so shocked that this ‘well-built’ infrastructure was so easily destroyed. Buildings that were built to withstand earthquakes crumbled to the ground and explosions occurred at the nuclear power plant causing toxic levels of radiation to seep out into food and the air; resulting in the evacuation of people within a 20 km radius.
Darwin states that individuals have characteristics that enable them to survive – resulting in endless improvement, however when climate change strikes and nature turns on humans – the concept of survival and evolution is non-existent and nature will always win in every circumstance. The tragic events that occurred in Japan is a perfect example of this theory – no matter how good technology is or how well buildings have been erected – no one can prepare themselves enough for the wrath of mother nature.
The date is Friday 4th December 1808 and the earth shook in South Africa – Milnerton. The reason for this earthquake was the Milnerton fault line that runs from about 8 km offshore of the Koeberg power station. (The deeper the epicentre of an earthquake is, the more destruction is called and the more it can be felt. Since 1808, several earthquakes in Cape Town alone have been recorded, even a small one in May 2009.)
An historian that was in Milnerton at the time wrote a journal entry “Near the Kraal I found rents and fissures in the ground, one of which I followed for about the extent of a mile. In some places they were more than an inch wide, and in others much less. In many places I was able to push into them, in a perpendicular direction, a switch to its full length, of three or four feet. By the people residing in the vicinity, I was informed, that they had observed these fissures on the morning of the 5th December, in some instances three and four inches wide, and that one person had been able to push the whole length of an iron rod used to fix curtains upon them, and that others had been able to do the same with whip handles of even ten feet in length.” The Ascot racecourse is now there – as if nothing ever happened or will happen again.
The date is 29th September 1969 and the earth shook again with a 6.5 magnitude earthquake – bigger than the one recently in Christchurch. 11 people died and infrastructure was ruined. It is also estimated to have caused a displacement of 26 cm over a distance of 20km. This earthquake could be from the Augrabies fault that runs a long South Africa that cause many minor tremors – most that people never feel but nonetheless – they’re still there. Scientists say that the crust is unstable and is very stressed – critically, especially in Southern Africa. All of this volcanic rock is pulling the crust apart, especially in the mountainous parts like Ceres and Tulbagh. South Africa is also the country that has the biggest landmass underneath it compared to any other country – causing a lot of pressure and unwanted movement in the rocks.
A few years ago there was that huge earthquake in Indonesia that was 6.7 magnitude. Villages that were situated on the East African coast were washed away and the waves in Cape Town and along the South African coast were said to be abnormal. Indonesia is 2000 km away. Koeberg is 8 km away.
The earthquake that shook Cape Town in 1808 has still left its mark today – the sediments that are surrounding Koeberg were shaken and the grains were moved which in turn released water between them, which has ridden to the surface. However, the electricity utility's operations and planning division MD, Kannan Lakmeeharam has stated that Koeberg is built on a ‘raft’ that can withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and “ you've got to look at what is the history of seismic activity in South Africa, and whether that design is sufficient.”
South African seismologist’s state that the earthquake risk is, “rare, but a very real threat for Cape Town”.
This might be easy to believe for some but one needs to realise that the Japanese seismologist’s did not see the earthquake coming and were also certain that their infrastructure could withstand any earthquake. Furthermore, the earthquake that hit Japan was 72km away from the Fukushima Power Plant; experts say that if an earthquake hit Cape Town, it would be along the Milnerton fault or Augrabies. The Milnerton fault is 8 km from Koeberg Power Station – a very short distance away, so for Eskom to state that the power plant would be fine is a very bold statement. Cynthia Dreyer, editor of Madibeng Paulse, a newspaper for the area of Madibeng says that neither South Africa’s Pelindaba nuclear-enrichment plant near Pretoria nor Koeberg nuclear-power plant north of Cape Town have any emergency evacuation plans. Yet these are two ticking nuclear time bombs: Pelindaba is built on top of an aquifer, Koeberg straddles the increasingly active Augrabies fault line…”
The aim was to keep the population around Koeberg to the bare minimum incase there had to be an emergency evacuation or radiation leak however, Atlantis and Melkbosstrand, are right next to Koeberg’s outer fences. Experts have already warned in 2000 that within fifteen years, it would take up to 19 hours to evacuate the population in a 16km radius of the plant in case of a nuclear emergency. The Cape Flats is situated on the fault line houses thousands of people (40000 people coming in a month). Why don’t the authorities actually stop these people from coming in by the thousands to avoid problems that will occur if there is an earthquake or natural disaster? The only building besides Koeberg said to be able to withstand an earthquake is the Rietvlei centre.
When one focuses on Enlightenment and the theories around it, one can see that modern theory has deduced that it can be used as a type/form of domination – where the powerful people (Eskom, the Government, MP’s) can use scientific information and their ‘general knowledge’ as a way of promoting themselves and making those that are less knowledgeable and vulnerable believe what they are saying. After doing research on the feedback to Eskom’s comments that “the design would mean Koeberg could withstand an earthquake of 7” – it is extremely evident that the people of Cape Town and even South Africa are very doubtful of what Eskom have to say. Furthermore, Eskom has just signed a R3, 4 million contracts with Saatchi to improve their image! Goes to show how desperate they are for people to try and get them to be trusted after all the ‘miscommunication’ before.
After the earthquake in Japan and the nuclear meltdown they are experiencing, people have become a bit more aware of nuclear energy and the effects that it can potentially have on people if something were to go wrong. There are now polar extremes on either side of the world… South Africa and Germany. Germany are shutting down seven nuclear power plants that were built before the 1980’s and will never start them up again after Japan’s incident.
South Africa on the other hand is planning on doubling the nuclear power capacity and has decided to expand Koeberg, adding more power stations. Public Enterprises Alec Erwin states that “South Africa is to build a second nuclear power station as part of a multi-billion rand plan to meet the surging demand for electricity fuelled by the country's economic growth.” What can cause people to have such an opposite reaction to something that can potentially be so big? ZME Science says –“South African officials don’t seem to let nature intimidate them. As such, South Africa’s cabinet ratified a controversial 20-year Integrated Resource Plan that calls for nuclear power to fuel nearly a quarter of the country’s new electricity production in the future.
So… One country shuts down half their power stations and another country wants to double them. Only time will tell whether any of these decisions is actually the correct one or not. This thought could lead to looking at Marxism and environmental sociology; this states that environmental degradation may have something to do with the fact that it is impossible to control an advanced industrial system. Is this what Germany is seeing and South Africa is completely missing? Earthquakes and tsunamis are not man made, therefore it is impossible to actually know whether ones decisions and actions were/are the right ones or not.
A company called Heinrich Böll who is involved in civic education in Germany and open to political foundations have become very involved with the possibility of earthquakes around the world and have stated a few very interesting things such as: “The Koeberg nuclear power station sits 8km from the offshore Milnerton Fault, and was built to withstand an earthquake rated at 7 on the Richter scale. The last big earthquake at this fault was in 1809 and was estimated at 6.5. It is possible that earthquakes at 8 on the Richter scale could occur.”
Now that all the earthquakes have been discussed, lets look at nuclear problems that have occurred; radiation, Chernobyl cancer… The negatives are endless. But does nuclear energy have to be seen in such a negative light.
Greenpeace thinks that we need an energy method that can fight climate change, based on renewable energy. Nuclear power delivers less energy globally than renewable energy. The thing that I think is the most scary thought when it comes to nuclear power plants is the thought of another Chernobyl disaster and after the Japan earthquake and tsunami it has become a lot clearer on how much easier it is than what people expected.
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 in the Ukraine. It was predicted that there was 30,000 to 60,000 cancer deaths and 985,000 extra deaths occurred between 1986 and 2004 because of radioactive contamination. Japan was very close to having Chernobyl no.2 from their Fukushima power plant! There is an international scale for nuclear accidents developed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has ranked the Japan disaster at a 6 on a 7-step scale for nuclear accidents. Chernobyl was a 7; therefore it is highly serious. The actual radiation only started leaking out 3 days after the earthquake – on the 15th March. The nuclear waste, which was stored in a pool near the reactor, evaporated – thus causing the radiation to evaporate into the air – radiation that has iodine and cesium in them – cancer causing agents. These radiation levels were 1000 times the normal levels, which caused the hydrogen explosions that sent the debris 1000 feet in the air.
There are however, a few differences: Chernobyl were going through an economic meltdown at the time and had no money – therefore no recourses to minimize the effects that it had on the people for generations to come. 5000 people rallied in the streets of Japan to use alternative sources of energy that were clean and renewable. At least people that have a voice are speaking up and trying to make people aware of the troubles that South Africa and other countries could face if something terrible like an earthquake were to happen in some cases if there were on or near a power plant.
There are over 51 nuclear power plants in Japan and only 10% of energy is produced from oil. Steve Kerekes, a spokesperson says that the reason for having so many nuclear plants are: nuclear plants provide around the clock power and it is cheaper.
At least people that have a voice are speaking up and trying to make people aware of the troubles that South Africa and other countries could face if something terrible like an earthquake were to happen in some cases if there were on or near a power plant.
Koeberg is the only nuclear power plant in South Africa and the reason that a nuclear power plant was built because they believed that fossil fuels would cause way too much pollution and unnecessary dumping, also having to build more too, costing more money. The World Nuclear Foundation states “South Africa’s main coal reserves are concentrated in Mpumalanga in the Northeast, while much of the load is on the coast near Cape Town and Durban. Moving either coal or electricity long distance is inefficient, so it was decided to build some 1800 MWe of nuclear capacity at Koeberg.” When one looks at critical realism it states that environmental change indicates that human society is having an impact in the development of humans and species and how they are operating and as a result these humans and species (animals, nature etc.) are being affected in sometimes, disastrous ways. For example: If one looks at the one side of climate change as being caused by humans and their ‘disrespect’ for the planet then one could argue that therefore we ‘caused’ the earthquake, which in turn with the ripple effect caused the tsunami which destroyed the nuclear power station making millions of people homeless and killing thousands. On the other hand, if one looks at the problems Koeberg has had – Vandalism by the ANC in the 90’s causing up to R50 million worth of damage or the metal bolt that was found inside a critical component of the nuclear reactor. This is not nature’s fault; this is ignorance by the maintenance staff. Therefore, even though this maintenance ignorance is only causing black outs and minor glitches, all these little problems cold be added up and if something naturally fatal were to happen i.e. earthquakes and tsunamis, the same could happen to Koeberg as what happened to Fukushima. Papadakis states that communication makes society a reality – one cant help but wonder if the communication within the Fukushima plant was more honest and thorough – would that much damage of actually been caused and therefore, are all these secrets and cover ups going on about Koeberg not just a ticking time bomb for something serious to happen and it will be too late to do anything about it?
Newton established the laws underlying the earth’s structure (the universes law of gravity). Locke was a prophet of modern science and wanted to ensure the most progressive ownership was made of this science. One can take the building of Nuclear power plants and the maintenance problems surrounding it and relate it directly to Locke and the way he thought about things from a scientific point of view.
There quite a few campaigns that surround this issue on a global basis but the two most prominent ones would be in Australia (Don’t Nuke The Climate Campaign) and Germany (Greenpeace) and. Greenpeace believe in fighting against nuclear power as it is a risk to the environment and humankind. Their solution to this problem is to shut down all existing power plants. “Nuclear power plants are, next to nuclear warheads themselves, the most dangerous devices that man has ever created. Their construction and proliferation is the most irresponsible, in fact the most criminal act ever to have taken place on this planet” - Patrick Moore, Assault on Future Generations, 1976.
WST states that societies remain fixed to some economic and social levels and the economic growth will not overcome environmental degradation. This is being seen in Germany at the moment – they are demolishing all nuclear plants that were built before 1980 as they feel that they are too much of an environmental risk – by doing this they are ignoring the backlash of the economy and the economic consequences that may be bought on by this task and are putting their future generations in the forefront of their minds by trying to save the environment.
A really effective campaign in South Africa is Earthlife Africa, which is a NGO that exposes the people that trying to disgrace the environment. Right now hundreds of people are protesting outside the Department of Energy in Pretoria about the consequences of nuclear power and nuclear waste and are trying to get the government and people higher up in the economic chain to realise the consequences that building nuclear plants in South Africa can have on the people and the environment.
“What the good life consists of should not concern governments; that is the matter of the individuals”
Everyone has their own views and feelings when it comes to energy, the environment and how we use it. Individuals can care on their own or in groups and have the right to say and feel anything they want to but the government in this case is not trying to better the life of the people and the country now and for future generations. With nature unfortunately a lot of negatives can come from one positive. Nuclear waste is also a big concern that all of these campaigns are focussing on – it can remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years leaving poison in so many things that we might not be affected by but our future generations will. What people are doing now is burying the nuclear waste far down in the ground, thus not making people or the atmosphere toxic.
So, after examining in great death the threats that can be caused by natural disasters that cannot be predicted and the long term effects that these seemingly small warnings can have on the environment one can see that the earth is constantly evolving, changing and shifting and sometimes no matter how advanced our technology Is or how knowledgeable our scientists and maintenance workers are, we are susceptible to great harm at any point in our lives. No one expected this terrible thing to happen to the Fukushima power plant and no one expects there to be another serious earthquake in South Africa, however if there is one, the consequences will be dire. People that have the power to change the future of whole countries and their future generations should put their best foot foreword and do something while there is still sufficient time. Personally, I believe what Germany are doing us for the best, if they can find alternative forms of energy and make that work then why cant everyone else? In a way, what happened recently in Japan is a blessing in disguise for future humans and species as it has opened the eyes of some people who were completely ignorant before. Let’s just hope that the Milnerton fault and the Augrabies fault stay calm for the mean time and the government make the right decisions in what will be best for their future children and not what is best for the size of their wallets as after doing extensive research, radiation poisoning and nuclear disasters are extremely serious killers and their affects can be felt for decades after the fact.