How highly do you rate a positive public profile? Very highly, if you work for the controversial Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) company. Enough, in fact, to swamp a radio poll with pro-PBMR SMS messages.
On SAfm’s environmental programme Environmental Matters on Monday night, Eskom’s generation stakeholder manager Tony Stott took on Mike Kantey of lobby group Koeberg Alert over the virtues of the mini-nuclear reactor.
Listeners were invited to SMS the station with their views and, as the debate heated the airwaves, anti-nuke sentiment came through loud and clear. That is, until a sudden avalanche of PBMR fan mail hit the station, reversing the trend.
Their journalists’ bullshit detectors aquiver, programme producers followed up. Lo and behold, a random sampling of the “yes” votes and call-backs showed a large number of messages came from … PBMR staffers.
“We could see the anomalies as they rolled in … they were all the same and they came in large numbers within minutes,” said Mary Murphy, Environmental Matters producer.
It remains unclear whether the nuclear enthusiasts were acting on company instructions, out of career anxiety or in a spontaneous show of loyalty to their bosses.
The poll came almost exactly a year after Earthlife Africa successfully challenged the PBMR environmental impact study in court. More recently it has emerged that a R14billion test site is needed to ensure the technology is viable.
The SMS survey: “Nuclear NO vs Nuclear YES” continues until next Monday.
Non-employees of PBMR (Pty) Ltd should make their mark by phoning 34010.