Enrichment fables

The Department of Minerals and Energy this week released a White Paper on nuclear energy development in South Africa where much is made of the potential for home-grown nuclear enrichment , thousands of jobs and a golden future for the development of more power plants. For those of you that may have missed the little spat between Iran and the rest of the world about nuclear enrichment, it goes something like this: Iran wants the bomb so that it can smite all unbelievers in its neighbourhood, so it starts enriching uranium. The mullahs, of course are using the same argument as the DME – they need energy for their people, not for bombs. The rest of the world is not that dumb. Knowing that the mullahs are not the most rational or stable of folks to have in your back yard, the rest of the world are determined to put a stop to this. And so there has been ever-increasing pressure on the mullahs to step back from the edge, leading to hard games of brinkmanship, rhetoric and political and financial ball-squeezing. For those that know what happened to North Korea, Iran is not going to be a pretty sight in another year or so. The signs are already visible on its streets and markets. Back to Sandile Noxina and Tseliso Maqnbela, these deep thinking doyens of the Dept. of Minerals and Energy. Of course there is nothing wrong with nuclear energy, but do the esteemed Directors-General have any idea of the shit-storm that is about to hit them when they try to enrich the uranium that will (under state control, we hope) provide 10 000 sustainable jobs? Do these gentlemen really think that the rest of the world will stand by and watch fissile material being produced on the leakiest and most corrupt continent in the world? Watch this space for some serious diplomatic fireworks over the next few weeks and months.