Hidden dangers of Eskom’s nuclear power plan
PETER BRUCE: Eskom’s rotten road
There’s potential for corruption to spread faster than the fallout from a leaky reactor
Bruce’s List: A guide to informed reads. Now here’s something really interesting. Chris Yelland has had an important interview with David Nicholls, chief nuclear officer at Eskom and the man at the centre of the power utility’s latest effort to build a fleet of nuclear reactors. It is controversial and potentially riddled with corruption. But not, I think, at Nicholls’ level. What you get here is a clear view, from someone expected to make it all happen, of what is about to occur. I’ve never been opposed to more nuclear power in SA but two things bother me about this plan. First, reports late last year that one of the chosen sites — near Cape St Francis — sits on a potentially dangerous geological fault were blithely dismissed by Eskom’s acting CEO, Matshela Koko. We know best, he said. Second, the corruption to come here, and the reason cronies of President Jacob Zuma — like, but not exclusively, the Gupta family — doesn’t lie in who supplies the reactors. It lies in the contractin...
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