Greenpeace Africa has demanded that Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson make publicly available all the key documents and plans surrounding South Africa’s controversial R1-trillion nuclear deal.

As public speculation over the nation’s accelerated nuclear plans builds, Greenpeace Africa’s programme director Lindlyn Moma requested that the key documents covering the full costs, the budget and financing plan, job creation potential, the economic impacts of the proposed investment and the impacts of the investment on the price of electricity be disclosed by Monday.

Greenpeace also requested the release of the full nuclear readiness report and the full procurement process to be followed, including the competitive bidding procedure planned.

Further, in addition to access to all the studies and assessments that have been made about nuclear investments, Greenpeace asked for timelines for the completion of an updated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and its wide-ranging public hearings.

“The entire process is flawed when the government is making such immense electricity investment decisions based on an outdated plan, with outdated demand projections and outdated assumptions . . .  the nuclear procurement process must be halted until such a time as the new IRP has been approved by Cabinet,” Moma said.

“We can no longer afford to wait for improved transparency when it comes to the proposed nuclear deal, particularly when plans to begin procurement are on the horizon,” Moma said, pointing out that, since government’s 2011 decision to build at least six new nuclear reactors in the country, Greenpeace and other civil society organisations have been “forced” to file requests for information through the Promotion of Access to Information Act for information that should have been made public.