Not Everyone Follows Crowds-South Africa Pushes Forward Despite Japan's Situation

I came across an article today about South Africa moving on to the last step for approval of an energy plan that will increase its nuclear capacity. This is shocking news to a lot of people. Recently, it had made it into the news that Greenpeace (a global lobby group) had urged SA to abandon the plans for adding more nuclear to their energy budget...saying that they should focus on "renewable energy sources". Greenpeace even went as far as calling SA's plan "absurd" due to the current events in Japan. One quote from the group: "We urge the government to rethink its coal and nuclear plans. Instead of dirty and dangerous power generation, it should be working towards a true energy revolution by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energies."

SA's plan involves adding 9600 MW of power from nuclear energy by 2030. And it has got everyone thinking...what is SA thinking? After the Japan incident, Switzerland and Italy postponed meetings about nuclear energy. Germany temporarily shut down 17 nuclear reactors. And, even China put a hold on all applications for new reactors. Yet here is SA deciding to move forward.

I think it's great. It was bound to happen...everyone knows that Fukushima is not going to shut down all of nuclear energy. I don't even think it'll slow it down. Governments know that the way things are going now with coal and such, it's bad...we just can't go on like that forever. If it wasn't South Africa it would have been another country...but hats off to SA for not listening to lobbyists or jumping on the media's bandwagon of nuclear fear.

“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” Elbert Hubbard