POINT OF ORDER
Nuclear fears lie in those devilish details
The nuclear build plan is not about the facts — it’s about contracts, writes Tim Cohen
It’s crucial, we all know, in important debates to question your own bias. I am adamantly against building new nuclear plants in SA, for a whole range of reasons I will explain. Yet there are a number of very smart people in SA who see it not just as the most effective option but also the most cost-effective one. Is it possible they are right and I’m wrong? I’m against nuclear power for two main reasons: SA’s arms deal and my own experience with solar power. Some years ago, my wife and I absconded from city life and moved to a very beautiful patch of the Karoo. It’s wild and barren and free and pulls at the innermost workings of your soul. Most South Africans, indeed Africans, I meet intimately know this experience, even if the contexts differ.Most farmers build their houses close to the road. We didn’t. We insisted on building on a hill deep in the property. So when it came to moving in, we faced a dilemma. Pay an enormous amount of money to string cables from the electricity mains...
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