The Anti-War Coalition is outraged at the National Nuclear Regulator's decision to grant a Russian nuclear-powered ship permission to dock in Cape Town. The Pyotr Velikii -- Russian for Peter the Great -- which has been deemed too big to berth at the V&A Waterfront, will anchor on the eastern side of the harbour for about two days. It's en route to the Arabian Sea to take part in exercises with the Indian Navy.

It's not the first time the Mother City has welcomed a nuclear-powered warship into its waters. But there's been an uproar around the Pyotr Velikii's docking at Table Bay harbour. The ship’s maintenance record hasn't been squeaky clean.

"In 2004 its admiral said its boilers would explode if they didn't get money for maintenance and the Russian Navy fined the crew a third of their salary and then started reconstructing this ship, it's now absolutely spiffy," says defence expert Renfrew Christie, of the University of the Western Cape.

But the local Anti-War Coalition says it'll take that with more than just a pinch of salt. The coalition’s Shaheed Mahomed says if the nuclear ship should malfunction, the people of Cape Town will be exposed to danger. “This is one of the direct major dangers. The second danger is that the South African government is giving legitimacy to a nuclear industry which is in fact the more criminal aspect of it," says Mahomed.