Johannesburg — James Mcephe, 69, is not the man he used to be. His skin is painfully itchy and bleeds after the slightest knock; his eyes are afflicted by a burning sensation that makes it difficult to see, and he often experiences aches in different parts of his body.
Ill-health has not always been Mcephe's constant companion - he insists he was a healthy man before he started working for the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) at the state-owned Pelindaba nuclear reactor, about 40km from Johannesburg.
NECSA promotes research and development in the field of nuclear energy and radiation sciences and technology, and processes special nuclear material and restricted material. Apart from its main operations at Pelindaba, the corporation also operates a radioactive waste disposal facility.
"I spent years working hard as a labourer in Pelindaba nuclear facility, and I was fine at the beginning, but we used to load chemicals onto tractors and do a lot of maintenance work on broken pipes that funnelled liquids around the complex," he said.
"We were never told about the risk of radiation contamination and there was never any safety training given to us - my protective clothing consisted of a pair of overalls. Now I am consumed by diseases. Things are bad, so bad I have to go to the clinic every month for treatment."
For 13 years Mcephe worked long, arduous days as a labourer at Pelindaba until his retrenchment in 1999. Today, he is one of a growing group of former NECSA employees who claim their ill-health is directly linked to their time as employees at NECSA's nuclear facilities.
His former employers ignored his complaints, so he contacted Earthlife Africa (ELA), an anti-nuclear group. A medical and occupational history examination concluded that his symptoms were consistent with those of someone who had been exposed to harmful chemical substances or radioactive materials.
According to ELA, hundreds if not thousands of former NECSA employees are in the same position. The results of a new survey, commissioned by ELA and carried out by Health Gap Network, a health-rights advocacy group, reviewed the medical condition of 208 of them, including Mcephe.
The findings claimed that 72 of the 208 people in the sample group were suffering from probable occupation-related illnesses, ranging from respiratory diseases, like lung cancer, asthma and lung fibrosis, to dermatological conditions.
In his final report, senior reviewer Dr Murray Coombs concluded that in an industry where annual medical surveillance is a legal requirement, the figures appeared to be extremely high.
"If we even accept that only 50 percent of the 72 [present] problems of potential occupational diseases, it may indicate 5,100 employees with occupational disease [in the historical pool of 30,000 NESCA employees since South Africa's nuclear programme began in the 1960s]," he wrote in his report.
The results add weight to fears harboured by South African anti-nuclear groups about safety at the country's nuclear power facilities. "We want to prove the company has been negligent in the past, and that the 1,073 workers currently employed by NECSA could still be exposed to potentially hazardous substances," said ELA's Mashile Phalane.
"We have been receiving anecdotal evidence for years in relation to radiation contamination at Pelindaba. To date around 350 people have come forward to say they are suffering ill-health that is linked to their time there, but many more won't come forward because their medical expenses are being looked after by the company, consequently they don't want to rock the boat."
ELA maintained that health concerns alone should spur the government to review the direction of its nuclear power programme. Future projects include a radioactive fuel plant, and a second reactor to be built by Eskom, the state electricity utility. NECSA has mooted a smelter to process radioactive metal on site at Pelindaba, and commercialising the smelter once its primary aim has been achieved.
NECSA provides strategic support to Eskom at the country's only nuclear electricity plant, located at Koeberg, 30km north of Cape Town.
South Africa's nuclear weapons programme came to an end on the eve of its first democratic elections in 1994, and the facilities have since been used for peaceful purposes. NECSA is accredited by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog.
"NECSA has never enforced safety requirements at its plants," said Phalane. "There is no independent institution to check the safety measures, so what you have is a company accused of polluting, checking itself. At least this should be rectified."
In response to the claims that radioactive and chemical contamination was prevalent among former Pelindaba employees, NECSA announced it would carry out an official investigation into the matter, beginning in June 2005.
However, Phalane said the NECSA investigation had been "a shambles", with affected parties barred from taking part. The results of the investigation, due for release in June this year, had "disappeared", he said, "so we decided to launch our own investigation through the Health Gap Network survey".
The corporation denied it had buried the report on the findings of its investigation into ill-health claims by former employees, and insisted that the employees in ELA's investigation had only requested their medical file information; they had never approached the company with the claim that their impaired health had been caused by any exposure to hazardous materials while working at Pelindaba.
According to NECSA spokesperson Chantel Janneker, once the company became aware of the claims it decided to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations and although it had not been completed by the original deadline, the report was expected to be published soon.
"This investigation will be completed in January 2007, given that sufficient numbers of the former employees make themselves available to be examined, and the report will made available to the public," she said.
NECSA issued a statement in response to ELA's survey findings, saying they indicated "a lack of knowledge of radiation protection and the health impact of exposure to radiation and nuclear material". The parastatal body also accused ELA of taking advantage of people who lived near Pelindaba to further its anti-nuclear agenda.
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"The ELA advertised in the towns in the vicinity of Pelindaba that people with impaired health may be at risk due to exposure at NECSA and they may be eligible for compensation. ELA, in so doing, have created hope in a group of people that are financially burdened, probably due to natural impaired health, that they will be compensated.
"This is supported by the fact that 119 of the 349 persons [who allegedly presented themselves to ELA] who said they worked at NECSA, in actual fact, have not," said Janneker. ELA had requested the medical records from NECSA after the people they had examined claimed to have contracted their illnesses while working at Pelindaba.
"Dr Murray Coombs, in his report, makes assumptions that cannot stand interrogation and is misleading ELA, and is supporting it in its drive to put any nuclear related matter into a negative light. Recent international opinion, prevalent even among environmental groups, is that, on balance, nuclear power is a more environmentally friendly option to produce energy than any other, and this is simply ignored by ELA."
The survey findings will further fuel the debate over whether South Africa should continue to embrace nuclear power or move towards alternative energy solutions. ELA wants the government to concentrate its efforts on developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
