Environmental activist organisation Earthlife Africa has lost a court application against the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) to stop the construction and use of a small nuclear waste smelter.

Judge Pierre Rabie dismissed Earthlife Africa’s (ELA’s) application in the High Court, in Pretoria, to set aside the authorisation for Necsa to operate the smelter.

ELA believes radioactive gases would be emitted from the smelter’s stack and, thus, appealed against the building of the smelter.

“I am really pleased at this most sensible outcome. Earthlife Africa has consistently refused to listen to any reason and has pursued this action as part of its ongoing attitude of obstruction of Necsa’s activities at every opportunity,” Necsa chairperson Dr Kelvin Kemm said.

According to stringent nuclear handling protocols, various items, such as pipes and metal fittings, which have been used in a nuclear process, must be cleaned, checked for residual radiation and then safely stored.

Such metal components are subjected to a thorough chemical cleaning process to remove radioactive dust, sludge or other contaminants. Necsa carries this out within a sealed environment.

However, owing to sharp angles in the metal components, such as screw threads and machined grooves, the chemical cleaning cannot remove 100% of potential radioactive contaminant.

The ‘waste’ pipes and fittings are stored in a secure area, after chemical cleaning. Such metal parts, collected over many years, were filling up the storage area.

Necsa decided that, to create more storage space, until now occupied by these pipes and parts, the waste components would be melted down to solid blocks of metal using a “sophisticated smelting system”.

This system not only melts the metal but also removes 98% of any uranium which may still remain attached to the metal, Necsa said.