23 July 2024: Earthlife Africa JHB Director, Makoma Lekalakala says, “It is very surprising that the Nuclear Regulator has approved the Koeberg life term operation application. This comes before the International Atomic Agency has had a chance to confirm that they have fulfilled and successfully complied with the recommendations that they had been given. If the National Nuclear Regulator was really a regulator, they would have taken into consideration the health aspects, and the dangers Koeberg poses – that the public is sometimes not made aware of. They should have used all these as a deterrent for them to approve the life term operation application.”

Francesca de Gasparis of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) says, “We have just heard the news that the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) has granted Koeberg an extension of its licence for Unit 1. If the NNR had taken into account – which we do not believe they have – all the comments from the public and experts into their decision-making, if they had listened to the fact that so many important safety documents are out of date, and if they had heard about the safety concerns about really important functional aspects of Koeberg that have not been updated, they never would have granted this licence.”

“We are extremely disappointed in the NNR, as we do not believe – with these kinds of governance decisions – that they are playing their regulatory role correctly. From our perspective, as an environmental watchdog – we believe that this decision was based on inadequate information and coupled with inadequate time for proper, meaningful public consultation, in terms of the quality and the load of information that was provided. We will be looking at this matter further,” adds de Gasparis.

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