Durban - Eskom's plans to build 20 000 megawatts (MW) of new nuclear capacity could be delayed if Earthlife Africa successfully challenges the legality of the government's draft nuclear policy.
In a submission in Cape Town by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) for Earthlife Africa, the environmental group is demanding the draft policy be withdrawn.
Should the department of minerals and energy fail to do so, Earthlife Africa said, it "reserves the right to challenge the policy as unlawful".
The period for public comment on the policy, which was released in July, closed a week ago.
Angela Andrews of the LRC's environmental justice project said it was impossible to say to what extent legal action could delay the government's nuclear plans.
"If we do challenge the lawfulness and are successful the policy could be set aside and the state would have to address deficiencies a court might identify," she said.
In the UK, a court action against the British government's nuclear strategy, launched in October last year, succeeded. In February the UK high court ruled in favour of Greenpeace, saying the government's decision to support the construction of new nuclear power plants was unlawful. The court said the consultation process was seriously flawed, inadequate and unfair. There was insufficient information made available to make intelligent comment.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the UK government still sees nuclear power as an option. But it has had to embark on a new consultation process, which is due to close at the end of this month.
Earthlife Africa's objections to the draft policy tabled by the department of minerals and energy are similar.
"The draft nuclear policy is a hasty and ill-informed document replete with sweeping unsupported statements as to the appropriateness of nuclear power," it said.
In the next few days the department will begin studying about 400 pages of comment from various organisations on the draft policy.
Tseliso Maqubela, the department's chief director of nuclear policy, said: "These comments may result in the draft policy being revised. Inputs could not change policy but could change the emphasis."
Earthlife Africa has objected that the policy did not follow the department of minerals and energy's own procedure as determined by the white paper on energy policy of 1998.
The white paper said that a decision on whether new nuclear capacity would be an option in the future would depend on the environmental and economic merits of alternative energy sources relative to nuclear and the political and public acceptability of nuclear power.
A decision to proceed with further nuclear plants would be done as part of integrated energy planning.
A national integrated resource plan was issued in 2003/04 by the national electricity regulator, now known as the National Energy Regulatory of SA (Nersa). The integrated plan included an analysis of the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) but did not mention large-scale expansion of nuclear power.
The PBMR is a new design of a pocket nuclear power plant based on German technology.
Earthlife Africa said the nuclear policy should have been preceded by an energy plan that included projections of demand and capital costs per kilowatt-hour and operating and maintenance costs for various options.
Maqubela said the department was finalising an electricity master plan. Together with Nersa, it was also finalising another version of the national integrated resource plan.
Asked whether the draft nuclear policy was then premature, Maqubela replied: "No it is not premature. It is the indication we need to give due to the lead times and processes we have to put in place. We have to plan far ahead."
But without such studies being made available to the public, Earthlife Africa said, any comments on the draft nuclear policy were meaningless.
Eskom is already working on its nuclear plans.
Tony Stott, Eskom's senior manager for nuclear stakeholder management, said environmental impact assessments for proposed nuclear power stations were being done at five coastal sites. These were Brazil and Schulpfontein in the Northern Cape; Duynefontein and Bantamsklip in the Western Cape; and Thyspunt, near Cape St Francis, in the Eastern Cape.
If all approvals were secured, Eskom wanted to start construction in 2010, with the first unit operating in 2016 or 2017, Stott said.
The first new nuclear power station would have a capacity of between 3 300MW and 4 000MW. Construction of the existing Koeberg nuclear plant began in 1976 and the first unit was commissioned in 1984.
Andrews said: "Based on public pronouncements by the government the decision to proceed with large-scale nuclear has been made and therefore consultation is a sham."
Eskom needs to double generation capacity to 80 000MW by 2025.