Thyspunt the worst possible site for plant
THE intention to build a nuclear power station at Thyspunt must be resisted at all costs for the following reasons:
ý Have the decision makers taken into account the fact that there are absolutely no adequate services available within 100km of the site?
ý Before construction of the power station commences a level platform of considerable area must be gouged out of the very undulating sand dunes, thereby destroying the unique fynbos and then many thousands of tons of hard core material must be imported to stabilise the surface of the platform. To build the platform a great many heavy earthmoving pieces of equipment are required which will, by their very nature, create vast clouds of dust which the fearsome south-westerly will drive over the towns of St Francis Bay and Cape St Francis;
ý Before any actual construction takes place, a construction camp capable of accommodating thousands of workers must be erected with the additional issues of supplying the required electricity, water, sewerage and refuse removal – all items that this area is already critically short of.
This begs the question: where will the electricity and water in particular be sourced? Where is the landfill site to be sited – at present even St Francis has no landfill site and all refuse must be transported to Humansdorp;
ý What consideration has been given to the access to the site that will have to carry thousands and thousands of tons of hard core to stabilise the platform as well as the huge quantities of cement, steel rebars and crushed stone for the station, not to mention the mechanical guts of the turbines, gantries, cooling systems, etc?
During the construction period of 10 to 15 years the prime holiday area of the Eastern Cape will be under constant siege from a population explosion that nobody will be able to withstand. The services will not be able to meet the extraordinary demand.
Is there a solution? Yes! Duplicate Koeberg. All the required ancillary services are already there.
All one needs to resolve the Port Elizabeth electrical shortfall is that a power line be provided from Koeberg to Port Elizabeth that will also serve all the towns in between. More importantly, many billions of rands will be saved as there will be no wasted costs in having to develop a complete new facility away from a metropolitan area when an alternative is available.
Rick McKiever, Port Elizabeth