A radioactive pickle

PELINDABA: FACILITY NEAR PRETORIA NEEDS TO BE REPURPOSED

It seems the country has decided to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Located about 30km west of Pretoria, the Pelindaba precinct has been home to South Africa’s official nuclear research corporation since the 1960s. The Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) hosts the country’s earliest nuclear reactor, originally designed to take weapons-grade uranium. It was also the original site for the development of nuclear weapons under the apartheid government, between 1978 and 1990.

Over the years, the corporation has experimented with reactor development, uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication, and the production of isotopes used in nuclear medicine.

In the years to 1994, it was

given relatively free range with budgets and personnel to conduct these experiments.

The whims of nuclear scientists were indulged as they were seen to be essential to apartheid’s semi-clandestine weapons, energy and sanctions-busting plans.

However, many of these projects – except for the isotopes, which remain lucrative – have been abandoned.

The corporation no longer sustains itself financially, there have been tensions between ministers and the board and the production of medial isotopes ceased for more than a year.

Problems in the running of the corporation have been evident for some time.

Earlier this year, former energy minister Jeff Radebe dealt with the growing internal problems by suspending and later firing the CEO, Phumzile Tshelane. He also took steps to fire the organisation’s entire board.

Radebe acted because he claimed the board had failed in its fiduciary duties. This included oversight of the shutdown of the production of isotopes for over a year, rendering Necsa in grave debt. Another reason was the signing of a deal with Russia’s Rosatom to build two “solution reactors” in South Africa. Radebe regarded the cooperation agreement as being irregular.

In December 2018, Radebe appointed former Necsa CEO Rob Adam as the new nonexecutive chair of the board.

In July this year, Adam confirmed he had resigned. In seven months, the task of restoring Necsa to functionality had become too onerous and time-consuming.

Adam’s resignation signals grave difficulties faced by Necsa in its attempts to restructure and improve its balance sheet.

Most worrying is that Necsa has spun off its former waste management responsibilities to a recent formation, the National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute, which has also experienced severe governance problems.

Necsa was the heir of an earlier Atomic Energy Board, which entered its life at the outset of the apartheid regime, on January 1, 1949.

At the time, there was much debate about where to locate atomic research. Some argued that it should become part of the government-sponsored Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). However, security and military issues prevailed.

South Africa, in deciding on Necsa’s future, should consider that for the present, the country has decided to give up its nuclear ambitions, specifically in the area of energy generation.

Republished from The Conversation.com

Fiscal and other problems have long been evident.