There are fears that that the nuclear build in South Africa is being driven for the benefit of the politically connected rather than the national good.
Controversy dogs South Africa’s nuclear energy plans.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
South Africa’s Parliamentary Budget Office had 10 months to prepare its findings about the cost of a nuclear programme. Its final report was little more than a summary of other institutions’ work.
Australia could take spent fuel from nuclear power stations overseas. This one is in South Korea.
IAEA Imagebank/Flickr
South Australia’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission has recommended a nuclear waste site for the state.
After one reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caught fire and exploded in 1986, the whole site was encased in a concrete sarcophagus.
Vladimir Repik/Reuters
The meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 exposed 572 million people to radiation. No other nuclear accident holds a candle to that level of public health impact.
The UK government looks set to allow EDF to build a new kind of nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point. But are there better nuclear technologies we could use?
Radioactively contaminated territory around the Mayak nuclear facility in Russia.
Nikulina/Slapovskaya/Heinrich Boell Foundation Moscow
A scholars’ panel looks at the diplomacy, the science and the pragmatism behind the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed between Iran and six world powers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) is looking to provide his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, with nuclear energy.
EPA
Instead of spending time trying to make nuclear energy a possibility, South Africa should look to forms of renewable energy instead.
Countries should make pledges to fund low-carbon research - such as developing solar technology - and development as part of global climate talks.
University of Salford Press Office/Flickr
Countries will take emissions reduction pledges to international climate talks in Paris at the end of this year. Those pledges should also include funds for low-carbon R&D.
Reactor pressure vessel during construction of Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, 1956.
U.S. Department of Energy, Naval Reactors Program
Neil Todreas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The basics of fission physics have stayed the same over the decades. But power-generating reactor designs have evolved, turning to new coolants, recycled fuel and other innovations.
Wind energy will be an important part of the world’s energy future - but it won’t be enough to feed growing demand.
David Clarke/Flickr
Thorium has several advantages over uranium nuclear power, but it also has its drawbacks. However, the question remains whether it would be the right technology should Australia choose to go nuclear.