Cape Town – One of Koeberg nuclear power station’s units was expected to go offline from Monday for refuelling and maintenance work, Eskom said.
Unit 2, which contributes 930 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid, will come back online in mid-December, the power utility said.
“The scheduled shutdown of Koeberg Unit 2 is part of Eskom’s overall maintenance programme for its fleet of power stations. Every 14 to 18 months, each of the two units at Koeberg is shut down for refuelling, inspection and maintenance,” Eskom said in a statement.
“During these routine planned outages, one third of the used nuclear fuel is replaced with new fuel. Statutory inspections and maintenance is performed, and modifications, that will ensure that international safety standards continue to be met or that improve the plant performance, are implemented.”
Unit 1, which also contributes 930 MW of power to the grid, was operating at full capacity.
“Medupi Unit 6, which became fully operational last week, together with other units from Eskom’s fleet of 27 power stations, will continue to be used to meet the country’s electricity needs,” the power utility added.
ANA