Kelvin Kemm

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Kelvin Kemm

Dr Kemm is a nuclear physicist and is the CEO of Nuclear Africa (Pty) Ltd.

Kemm is the chairperson of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation. He sits on the Board of Advisers of the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, based in Washington DC.

He is also a Board Member of GoNuclear Inc, and EFN: USA both based in Colorado, USA.

Exec@nuclearafrica.co.za

Misguided aversion to fossil fuels poses malnutrition and starvation threat

27th June 2014 People are exposed all the time to a barrage of propaganda about global warming. Very few even know of the existence of numerous short cold periods, or Little Ice Ages, that have occurred. The most recent one occurred at the time of William Shakespeare and Jan van Riebeeck. In fact, some... →

Bafana’s problems do not lie with its coach

20th June 2014 It has been announced that the contract of national soccer team coach Gordon Igesund will not be renewed after August. To my mind, this is a big mistake and it is not too late to reverse the decision. Igesund should stay. I found the comments of South African Football Association (Safa) president... →

EIAs for wind farms too simplistic

13th June 2014 In April, a single-engine Piper aircraft flew into a wind turbine and crashed. Four people were killed. The incident seems to have gone virtually unmentioned in the media. The accident occurred in the US, in South Dakota.There was one person, the pilot, in the aircraft and he worked for local... →

Lack of team dynamic Bafana’s undoing

6th June 2014 The South African national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, has not been performing well for a while now. I have watched a number of games and I have my opinions about what is going on. I will return to this in a moment. →

How truth becomes an inconvenience for activists

30th May 2014 It is an interesting phenomenon how activist groups operate. I have watched them for years. Virtually all of them turn into political organisations. What I mean is that they try to manipulate the public to help them to win. Winning becomes their primary focus. They and the public then lose sight... →

Food production now and in the future needs chemicals

23rd May 2014 I was invited to be guest speaker at an international nematology conference in Cape Town, the sixth International Congress of Nematology. Nematology is the study of worms in agriculture. There was a large turnout of over 500 people from around the world. I was not invited as an expert in worm... →

Driver attitude, not speed, the main cause of accidents

16th May 2014 The Easter holiday period is now past, and yet again the death toll on the country’s roads has been tallied. This is always a sad thing to do. It always saddens me, but I also experience irritation. My irritation stems from the various authorities. I have written about this often before. I listen... →

The dangers of not knowing what one doesn’t know

9th May 2014 Skilled people know what they know. Probably more important, however, is that skilled people also know what they do not know. So, a brain surgeon, faced with a complex case that he has never dealt with before, knows that it is wise to contact other professionals in the field and to discuss... →

Gauteng govt spot-on on taxi licensing

2nd May 2014 I read a story that said the newly elected president of the South African National Taxi Council (Santco) had pointed out that half of the taxis in Gauteng were operating without licences permitting them to carry fare-paying passengers. →

Strikes being organised with damage in mind

25th April 2014 The waves of strikes that we have seen in South Africa for some time now just have to stop.Nobody is benefiting, not even the workers who strike for higher pay. The reason is that, as soon as one group succeeds in getting a pay increase, the next group strikes. Eventually, the general prices of... →

Changing Easter dates a case of church politicians wrestling with the moon’s motion

18th April 2014 In 2013, Easter fell at the end of March. Good Friday was March 29 and Easter Sunday March 31. In 2014, the dates shifted a lot, with Good Friday being April 18 and Easter Sunday April 20. Churches around the world have an Easter problem, which they would like to resolve. →

A bit of questioning will solve many of our problems

11th April 2014 Sir Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists of all time. He developed amazing mathematics, such as calculus, and also developed laws of physics related to motion, gravity, light, heat and more. Newton was a great intellect – there is no doubt about that – but what was it really which has... →

Great minds come together at Nuclear Africa 2014

4th April 2014 The Nuclear Africa 2014 nuclear power conference unfolded extremely well and according to plan. The conference was designed to achieve objectives and was intentionally laid out with a plan in mind. →

Congrats to gold miner on malaria initiative

28th March 2014 Congratulations have to go to gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti for the amazing malaria programme that the company has piloted in West Africa. The programme, which the company started in Ghana, is now spreading to other African countries. Malaria is still one of the world’s largest killers –... →

Projecting output of wind, solar as their theoretical maximum is dishonest

21st March 2014 I was invited to be a guest speaker at a National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) seminar in Bloemfontein. The topic was energy supply. All types of energy were addressed, mainly from the scientific perspective. A few things that worried me were that a few people, mainly the renewable-energy... →

Gauteng’s e-toll project a shocking disgrace

14th March 2014 I was at a meeting in Sandton with a group of people. It started first thing in the morning and a group was standing around, having morning coffee before proceedings started. The topic of traffic came up, and a few people noted that there seemed to be fewer cars on the freeways, now that... →

Olympics a joy to watch, thanks to super close-ups, replays of the drama

7th March 2014 It was interesting watching some of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. I watching on TV and so had the benefit of the super close-ups and the replays of the drama. →

Spirit of Africa gets into chess grandmaster’s soul

28th February 2014 The World Champion chess grand master Garry Kasparov has just completed another tour of a number of African countries. He managed to either visit or meet representatives from 20 African countries. →

The world is much bigger now, thanks to advances in technology

21st February 2014 There is an expression that our world is becoming a smaller place. Yes, modern communications and travel does make it considerably easier to travel from the bottom of Africa to the ports of Europe than was the case half a century ago. Now one can send messages over this distance in seconds rather... →

Carbon capture, storage a waste of time and money

14th February 2014 Here I sit, enjoying a long warm summer in Pretoria. Some nights I go home, and in the dark I jump in into my swimming pool and lazily float around, looking up at the millions of starts shining brightly in a cloudless sky. →

Nuclear is the way to go

31st January 2014 I was looking at an electricity distribution map of Germany and Scandinavia. It was an animated map and it showed the movement of electricity on an hour-by-hour basis. What struck me was that one cannot speak of the grid of one of those countries in isolation. On an hour-by-hour basis,... →

All elements of a system must work harmoniously, or else . . .

24th January 2014 If you are operating a system, it is important that all elements of the system work together in harmony, or the entire system can fail. With this in mind, let me relate my lunch experience at the Mugg and Bean at Killarney Mall, in Johannesburg. I had been at a meeting and wanted to get together... →

Engineering needs to take value considerations into account

17th January 2014 Engineering is very much concerned with values. By this I mean engineering values, such as the value of a mathematical constant like Pi, the strength of a piece of steel or the hardness of ceramic material. Engineers know that these numbers are important. →

The flip side of modern technology

13th December 2013 Modern technology advance brings many benefits, but, almost always, a technology advance also brings with it the potential for negative side effects. People interact with technology and so the effects, both positive and negative, bring changes to the way people interact with one another.... →

Nuclear cost reality

6th December 2013 The philosophy of protecting the public against unexpected incidents arising from the advance of new technology is very good. As a general rule, new technology brings great benefit to mankind, but at times downside snags also come with the package. Frequently, such downside snags are not... →

Pelindaba radiation scare uncalled-for

29th November 2013 Nuclear radiation is mysterious and by far the majority of people have no idea what it is. Much of this attitude is understandable and it should be a signal to nuclear professionals that they should do something about the lack of public understanding. Worldwide, over the last half century,... →

Nail-biting period for Indian space body as craft sets off for Mars

22nd November 2013 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) must be congratulated on the successful launch of its first attempt at a mission to Mars. Its Mars Orbiter-Mission is also known by the informal name of Mangalyaan, which means Mars-craft. ISRO chairperson K Radhakrishan is under no illusion about how... →

Ministry is the greatest impediment to higher education development

15th November 2013 I attended a cocktail function at which Dr Theuns Eloff, vice-chancellor of the North-West University, was the guest speaker. He spoke about higher education and how universities should be run. I have known him personally for some time, so I was aware of his general views and am in full agreement... →

Beer advert ban plan seems headed the e-toll route

8th November 2013 I saw a newspaper article headlined: Alcohol ads to be capped ‘for good reason’. My immediate reaction was that there was no good reason for this. It immediately seemed to me that this is another e-toll mess-up in the making. The e-tolls on Gauteng freeways were a really badly planned, and all... →

Metrology under the spotlight

1st November 2013 I was invited to be the guest speaker at the 2013 Test and Measurement Conference, hosted by the National Laboratory Association. It was a well attended event and was most successful. I met an interesting spread of people, from not only South Africa but also other countries. The chairperson of... →

School chess initiative gets further shot in the arm

25th October 2013 One of the greatest assets that any child can gain out of any educational process is the ability to think in an analytical fashion. This attribute is fundamental to any form of education. The degree to which this fundamental truth is overlooked in education continues to surprise me. There is... →

Climate change is not a fact of life

11th October 2013 At social and business gatherings, I continue to hear people talk about ‘climate change’ as if it is a fact of life and is really happening. Mostly, people also confuse the concepts of climate change and the occurrence of weather. Modern media technology also plays a role in all this, to my mind,... →

SA needs a great deal of nuclear power

4th October 2013 For some time now, I have been corresponding with the gentleman who was the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy under former US President Ronald Reagan. →

Fundraising to protect the rhino sounds warm – but it won’t work

27th September 2013 The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has declared the southern white rhino to be endangered. →

Where the thought experiment falls apart

20th September 2013 In the world of physics, there is the concept of the ‘thought experiment’. This is a very useful mechanism in physics. →

Disinformation behind inordinate fear of nuclear radiation

13th September 2013 There is an inordinate public fear of the term ‘nuclear radiation’. This is understandable, owing to all the disinformation about nuclear issues that has been spread around. →

South Africa’s nuclear prospects under the spotlight at PE conference

6th September 2013 A nuclear power conference was held in Port Elizabeth under the banner of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (Niasa). I collaborated with iasa in organising the conference. An objective in holding the conference in Port Elizabeth was to draw potential players from the Eastern Cape... →

Smart electricity grids not for South Africa

30th August 2013 A topic that keeps appearing in the South African technical media is that of ‘Smart Grids’ in reference to electricity transmission and distribution. This is all projected as being advanced, and the way to go. Yes it is advanced, but is it the way to go? Short answer is; no, not for us. Let us... →

The downside of wind farms

16th August 2013 There have been news items the last few days concerning the arrival at Port Elizabeth of wind-turbine blades for the wind farm under construction in the Cape. I have seen this on news websites, and not in the daily press. →

Kasparov emphasises chess’s brain sharpening function on African tour

9th August 2013 The thirteenth world chess champion, grandmaster Garry Kasporov, recently completed a tour of seven African countries. When he returned, I sat with him over a cup of coffee and we discussed the tour. →

Rethink anticollusion laws where large projects are involved

2nd August 2013 There has been a big fuss lately around the topic of ‘collusion’ amongst a group of large construction companies. There have been many outraged comments in the newspapers about how these companies should be punished for the damage that they have caused to the public. One has to ask; what damage?... →

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