rx nws Koeberg
| Date | 02 December 2020 |
| Published date | 02 December 2020 |
| Publication title | Tabletalk |
According to the Council for Geoscience (CGS), the two quakes were not related.
On September 27, another 2.3 magnitude tremor hit 5km north of Durbanville.
On Tuesday November 17 at 12.27am, a 3.5 magnitude tremor was reported 60km off the Cape Town coastline.
The Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute (Safcei) says an increase in seismic activity on the Milnerton fault line should ring alarm bells, especially since Eskom plans to extend Koeberg's 40-year lifespan, due to end in July 2024, by another 20 years.
The Milnerton fault line caused one of the biggest earthquakes to ever hit Cape Town - the '9 quake is estimated to have been a magnitude 6 event.
Francesca de Gasparis, Safcei's executive director, has doubts about whether Eskom can be trusted to put people first in its decision-making about Koeberg.
"Has Eskom considered what will happen if we are hit by a massive earthquake on this existing earthquake fault, so close to our only nuclear power plant? We know from the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, citizens were told not to worry, and that the government and the nuclear plants had everything under control. Yet, these are two of the biggest nuclear catastrophes of our time.
"Are we willing to take that chance with Koeberg when the information that should be in the public realm is being kept hidden? Firstly, the plant is old and secondly, we have no information about its current state. What if the next earthquake is even more powerful, which some scientists are saying is more than likely?"
A disaster on the scale of Fukushima or Chernobyl would be catastrophic for the country, she argues.
"In a worst-case scenario, the Koeberg evacuation plan would have to be implemented, and tens of thousands of people, possibly millions of people, would need to be evacuated. And since radioactive contamination can make an area uninhabitable for hundreds of years, where would all these people find housing? Or schools for their children? Will there be enough services or jobs there, to cater for these new inhabitants?
"These are important questions which should be addressed in the open, with sufficient reliable evidence available for public scrutiny."
Peter Becker, of Koeberg Alert Alliance, says Eskom's response to their questions about the recent quakes was far...
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