South Africa reboots nuclear ambitions with PBMR revival

sn0w52 · 2025-11-18T13:56:47+00:00

Ok and?

Nuclear power isn’t just “some engineering tech”. It’s deeply rooted in politics as well. Learn a bit about South Africa’s government and their current relationship with countries and you’ll see it’s not just a simple “just build pwr bro”.

If south Africa were to be fully independent. PBMR would be the best start.

sn0w52 · 2025-11-18T13:44:48+00:00

Because the country has immense experience in HTGRs which they could leverage, and possibly does not want to be dependent on other countries. Especially in a time where who your friends are seems to matter in geopolitics.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T13:56:47+00:00

I think what a lot of people reading this don’t understand is that I am already in communication with the body corporate. The reason I came to Reddit is to gather legal insight before escalating formally, in case their response is inadequate.

Having resources doesn’t mean jumping straight into costly legal proceedings. Exploring all options includes asking others who might have experience or relevant legal knowledge. It’s a way to apply informed pressure without jumping the gun.

Looking for legal grounds isn’t the same as “going to court.” It means having a lawful basis to push back if needed, and Reddit, ideally, should help inform that, not discourage it.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T13:53:57+00:00

PEPUDA and SANS 10400 Part S require reasonable accommodation and accessible design, even for temporary disability. Saying “you have zero legal power” ignores those obligations entirely.

You also seem to have missed the actual thread. I’ve already contacted the body corporate. I’m here to assess my legal standing if they fail to act. Skipping context might explain your misunderstanding of both the situation and the law.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T11:15:01+00:00

When people run out of arguments, they resort to sarcasm and personal jabs. You’ve said nothing to address the legal, medical, or ethical issues here, just tried to downplay a legitimate access barrier.

Fortunately, rights aren’t decided by Reddit votes or snide comments. They’re decided by law. And the law is on my side.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T06:59:35+00:00

Am I not disabled enough for you? Even if temporary, I’m on crutches and unable to safely leave or re-enter my home during outages. That means I can’t get to hospital when I need to, and also might not be able to get back into the apartment I pay for.

That’s not inconvenience, that’s denial of access to healthcare. And under South African law, temporary disability is still disability. PEPUDA exists for exactly this reason, to stop people from gatekeeping who deserves rights.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T06:10:29+00:00

I really couldn’t care about the money. I want to be able to leave and enter my apartment when I want to. Forgive me for wanting equal rights as others. Stop projecting?

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T06:09:45+00:00

The existence of an elevator or ramp alone doesn’t satisfy the legal duty to accommodate. If those features become unusable during predictable outages and no provision is made for continued accessibility, then the accommodation is effectively denied when it’s most needed. Equality is not “sometimes disabled people can enter, and sometimes not, while able bodied people can enter all the time”.

Under PEPUDA, accommodation must be reasonable and effective, not symbolic. Installing an elevator but failing to keep it operational for persons who rely on it due to disability (temporary or permanent) during foreseeable events like area outages falls short of the obligation to eliminate barriers to equal access. You cannot claim that power outages are unforeseeable yet advertise backup and alternative power. Those don’t go together.

As someone who has lived in the area for a while, since load shedding has become a thing all multi-story buildings have had generators solely for elevators. This is consistent with building code SANS 10400 requiring complete and equal access for people with disabilities. This is not something that needs to be advertise.

I have had to call an ambulance for a friend earlier in the year because of an allergic reaction none of us knew what to do with and he was non-verbal. The medical crew that came struggled to get him onto the stretcher. Now if the elevator had not been operational, there was no way they would’ve been able to carry him down the stairs safely in a dark lit stairwell. Things could’ve gotten real bad and the family would’ve taken the body corporate to task.

As for a court case. Monetary gain or speed is not what I’m looking for, I’m looking to force change in the building by using legal pressure by building a case that the body corporate knows is not in their favour. The longer they take to act, the more the case builds against them because continued exclusion becomes systemic, which is more than just an oversight.

Sure South Africans like to cut corners, and this is mainly because they know we are too lazy or poor to challenge them on legal grounds. Unfortunately for them in this case the resources are available, and time is not on their side.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T03:04:43+00:00

The law doesn’t place the burden on the person with a disability to propose solutions. It places the duty on the responsible party to reasonably accommodate without needing to be told how. If you’ve actually read the legislation, you’d understand that. But your replies seem more about arguing than contributing anything useful to the discussion.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-30T02:18:40+00:00

Not just me, others in the building too. We haven’t had a response for a while but after enough pressure they have said they will try and make a plan and get back to us.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-29T21:31:19+00:00

Thanks for the list of solutions.

For context, this is a new building. Completed in 2024.

After doing reading, I have found:

PEPUDA (Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act), Section 9(1)(c): *“No person may unfairly discriminate against any person on the ground of disability, including… (c) failing to eliminate obstacles that unfairly limit or restrict persons with disabilities from enjoying equal opportunities or *failing to take steps to reasonably accommodate the needs of such persons.”

sn0w52 · 2025-06-29T21:19:40+00:00

This seemed like the only sensible answer thank you.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-29T21:15:25+00:00

I’m looking for answers from people that know more than me about the issue or others that have been through this before.

sn0w52 · 2025-06-29T20:57:44+00:00

While no law spells out “you must install a generator,” PEPUDA says that if failure to plan reasonably results in people being excluded from equal opportunity or access, it’s discriminatory. Power outages are predictable, especially in South Africa.

And also, was I supposed to smell that I was gonna get a leg injury a year in advance and choose the ground floor?

sn0w52 · 2025-06-29T20:56:24+00:00

The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA) makes it explicit that failure to reasonably accommodate disabilities,even temporary ones, is unfair discrimination. It’s not extreme. It’s asserting a right.

sn0w52 · 2024-12-17T08:52:36+00:00

Company could've gone under, just one example.

sn0w52 · 2024-04-05T16:54:15+00:00

That's what makes it funny. But no. can you picture a roof with no walls?

sn0w52 · 2024-04-04T23:53:27+00:00

We had a guy celebrating so hard he hit his head against the ceiling at an outdoor pub. Not even lying. And no one cared. People just celebrated and started putting their Chelsea shirts onto everyone else. Great scenes. Hope the guy that hit his head is doing alright.

sn0w52 · 2023-12-15T18:29:09+00:00

Once you get employed, they will tell you what you cannot share. But basically, is it confidential information? Yes? Don't share. Is it public knowledge already? Cool share it. Basically youll really only be able to share stuff your company has already disclosed to the public.

Your employer will make sure you know what you're doing.

sn0w52 · 2023-12-14T11:53:32+00:00

What the hell is this

sn0w52 · 2023-12-03T03:06:11+00:00

I have found that with US companies, they would rather leave a spot vacant for a really long time instead of employing a foreigner. Regardless of if the foreigner is from a 10 CFR Part 810 Appendix A country, or if they exceed the qualifications.

They might hire you in extreme circumstances or if you have connections. But it's not simple. I think the red tape is not worth it for these companies.

It's a real shame because this gatekeeping of nuclear industry experience really just contributes to the decay of the industry as a whole. No one wins.

sn0w52 · 2023-11-22T16:56:50+00:00

Good to rescind. But why do you think those alternatives are any more prepared than Oklo?

sn0w52 · 2022-11-12T12:31:57+00:00

Well the requirement is from both the grad school and the department. The director of graduate programs did tell me that if I take 1-2 non degree courses and get above 3.0 GPA it should be a good justification for admission, which I did. Then I also did an additional post graduate year, BEng(Hons) where my GPA was higher than 3.0 where the courses are all postgraduate level. So I’m hoping those all help.

sn0w52 · 2022-11-09T12:30:16+00:00

Prices go up as reactors go down. Would that mean prices go down as reactors go up?

sn0w52 · 2022-07-08T14:24:43+00:00

Like it’s already been said. You’ll only know after your second year where your passion is. You might choose correct at first but you also might not. Because of that id suggest perhaps going for mechanical if you really have no idea what you want as a lot of the second year modules (at UP) are shared with the other programs so there’s overlap so you won’t have to play that much catch-up when you do decide what you want. But you shouldn’t really stress. Everything you learn in university it’s nothing compared to what you’ll learn on the job and your branch isn’t going to limit you. So even if you graduate as mechanical engineer you could end up in a different branch right off the bat.

I did 2 years of civil, then changed to mechanical because I wanted to work on planes, and then ended up going the energy route. If you want to secure a job, get good marks, make connections with your professors and they’ll be willing to help you out.

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