Johannesburg – Mass
evacuation is one of several recommendations of in a
government-commissioned drafted plan. Scores of people face evacuation from
greater Johannesburg in the Gauteng province because of toxic sludge being
spewed by abandoned gold mines laced with high radiation levels. National
Nuclear Regulator (NNR) spokesman Gino Moonsamy confirmed that about 500 people
were evacuated from the Tudor Shaft informal settlement near Kagiso, west of
Johannesburg, due to radiation fears. A recent scientific report by
Anthony Turton, a prominent South African water scientist, reveals that
radiation levels at Tudor Shaft suggest that the country faces a localized
environmental crisis that can be compared to Chernobyl. Acid mine water, which
is the result of groundwater flowing through underground shafts, is pouring out
of old uranium mine and rising by up to half a meter a day beneath the city,
which has 7 million people.
