Cape Town – Eskom says after more than 450 days of uninterrupted operation, Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in Cape Town will on Monday, January 17, be taken offline for a regular refuelling and maintenance outage.
“This will be the 25th refuelling outage on unit 2 since commissioning and will also see the replacement of the unit’s three steam generators. During this outage the reactor pressure vessel head, which houses the nuclear fuel while the station is in operation, will also be replaced,” Eskom said in a statement.
An outage of Koeberg Unit 1 will take place later this year, said Eskom, adding that the Koeberg units, at 920MW each, are the largest generating units on the African continent.
The extended unavailability of the units “does mean the electricity supply system may be under additional strain during the coming year”, the power utility said.
Read the full statement below
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Unit 2 going offline@News24 @Newzroom405 @SABCNews @eNCA @SundayTimesZA @IOL pic.twitter.com/FdTNEiAie0
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) January 15, 2022
The development comes as Africa’s most industrialised economy experienced record outages last year.
According to Bloomberg, the frequent power cuts have undermined efforts to revive the coronavirus-battered economy, and President Cyril Ramaphosa said last year they partly contributed to the ruling African National Congress’s worst-ever electoral showing in November’s municipal vote.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
