The Cape High Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of environmental group Earthlife Africa when it set aside the Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Dr Chippy Olver’s authorisation of construction of the power utility Eskom’s proposed Koeberg Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR).
Justice Ben Griesel delivered the judgement and was assisted by Justice Dennis Davis and Justice I Moosa.
”It needs to be explained that our decision didn’t rest upon the merits or demerits of the proposed PBMR, in particular, nor nuclear power in general. These were not the matters we were called upon to consider,” the court said in its judgement.
The decision dealt solely with the procedural fairness of the Director General’s authorisation, which was found to be flawed and was set aside by the judges.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism as well as Eskom Holdings were ordered to pay Earthlife Africa’s legal costs. The Legal Resources Centre represented Earthlife Africa in the case.
In November 2004, Earthlife Africa argued that Olver, who authorised the plant, was obliged to afford them a fair hearing before taking the decision to grant the authorisation. He failed to do so.
Earthlife Africa also argued that he failed to properly address the problems posed by nuclear waste and he abdicated responsibility to properly consider safety issues by deferring to the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR).
Consultants undertook the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the PBMR.
The public, including Earthlife Africa, commented on the draft EIA document and also made vigorous efforts to obtain access to further information and documents relating to the draft environmental impact assessment from government, Eskom, the consultants and others.
After receiving submissions, the consultants produced a final environmental impact report, which it submitted to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
”However, no opportunity was given to interested parties to comment on it,” Earthlife Africa said.
One of Earthlife Africa’s key objections is that the final EIA report contained a substantial number of documents that were not previously made available to the public, including extracts from the safety analysis report.
Another concern raised by Earthlife Africa is the fact that Olver should have considered the views of the NNR on the safety of the project before coming to his decision to make his own judgement on these issues.
Lawyer Angela Andrews, representing Earthlife, said environmental groups had been vindicated as economic and environmental considerations had not been properly addressed during the consultation process. She noted that the estimated cost of the pebble bed was ”some R15-billion to build which will be bankrolled by public money”.
Outside the court a lively group of Earth Life activists carried posters reading ”erfenis” (heritage) and ”down with Koeberg”. ‒ I-Net Bridge