The government denied on Thursday claims of radioactive danger in the vicinity of Pelindaba outside Pretoria, and threatened to change the law to sanction anybody spreading baseless alarm in future.
”There is no security or proliferation risk,” Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told reporters after a regular Cabinet meeting in Pretoria. ”There is no radioactive waste at the sites in question.”
Environmental lobby group Earthlife Africa earlier this week called for a probe into ”high” nuclear radiation levels found in the vicinity of Pelindaba.
It claimed a site with apparent radioactive materials had been discovered about 20m from a newly established low-cost housing scheme.
It appeared that radioactive ores were ”deliberately” buried in shallow concrete containers, with an open gate and inadequate warning signs, Earthlife said.
It claims to have measured the radiation from the buried sources and found levels of up to 20 to 30 microsieverts per hour.
The legal limit for ionising radiation measured directly outside a storage place for radioactive materials is not supposed to exceed a dose rate of 2,5 microsieverts per hour.
The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) said it would probe the claims, and instructed the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) to secure the site and put up signs.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said the ”waste” found by Earthlife is actually a number of ”concrete calibration pads” used for instrument calibration purposes by geologists working in the area.
No radioactive waste was found, and tests on the soil in the vicinity also yielded no radiation threat.
But she agreed that Necsa should have put signs up, and that the slabs should not have been lying around — even though they do not pose a risk.
The NNR will investigate the incident to check for possible violations and prevent a repeat in future.
Mlambo-Ngcuka expressed concern about unnecessary alarm caused by Earthlife and the media, which she claimed had failed to check the facts with the government.
”We are considering strengthening the law so that if people make such allegations, there is a sanction.”
South Africa will study laws in other countries criminalising the spreading of inciting and panic-causing information.
On Thursday, President Thabo Mbeki also dismissed statements about the existence of radioactive waste in Pelindaba outside Pretoria as ”reckless” and ”very regrettable”, saying they hold no truth.
The president was speaking at the presentation of the Champion of the Earth Award in Pretoria.
Mbeki was presented with the award by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk for his ”outstanding and inspirational leadership in the field of the environment”.
Van Schalkwyk received the award on behalf of the president at the United Nations in New York last week.
”I am deeply disturbed by the reckless statements that have been made regarding the Pelindaba nuclear emissions and how these are affecting the people of Atteridgeville,” said Mbeki.
”These are statements made without foundation and are, in my view, totally impermissible. We cannot go on scaring people about something that does not exist.”
He said the statements were made by an NGO (Earthlife Africa) that aimed to ”promote its own interests”. — Sapa