ESKOM’S deferral of the project to replace steam generators at Koeberg's Unit 2 will save the economy billions of rands as loadshedding and outages in the high demand winter season would have been catastrophic, both pro and anti-nuclear supporters said yesterday as the utility bears the cost of postponing the refurbishments to August next year.
Eskom on Friday announced Eskom will defer the replacement of three steam generators at Unit 2 of Koeberg nuclear power station so that the unit can return to service in June as scheduled.
The unit, which was shut down on January 18 for refuelling and extension of life which includes the replacement of three steam generators, was scheduled to return to service.
“What is concerning is Framatome (French company) had to come and tell Eskom staff at Koeberg that they were not ready. Why did the staff not have the expertise to see that for themselves before the French arrived,“ asked Koeberg Nuclear Alliance's Peter Becker?
Becker said the delay will give Eskom a chance to reconsider the economics of the refurbishment works and to pay close attention to the modelling by energy analyst Clyde Mallison who noted that long outages which were planned all through winter would have cost the economy over R30 billion in extra loadshedding.
“Large Eskom projects are notorious for running overtime and over budget. Eskom has estimated the cost of the refurbishment to be around R20bn but we know based on past projects that this will double or triple. Already there must have been a very large financial penalties for having to send the Framatome staff back home,” Becker said.
Briefing the media on Friday, Eskom's chief operating officer Jan Oberhozler said there was a high risk the unit would take longer than planned if the steam generator replacements were made. He said consultations with Framatome before the shutdown had foused on high quality final delivery.
Oberhozler said Eskom would not risk shortages in the high demand winter period set to begin in a few weeks.
Nuclear physicist Kelvin Kemm said the deferral was mostly a nuisance to Eskom's internal staff and the Framatome contingent, and would probably cost more in logistical arrangements, but it had been an anticipated decision under the circumstances.
“Eskom will lose electricity sales in the time of the shutdown, will do so again when they shutdown next year. There are probably penalties that have to be paid. My point is the sooner we have the more small nuclear reactors for stability, the better," Kemm said.
Eskom last year applied for the licence extension with the National Nuclear Regulator. It plans to submit required reports for the licensing process in the middle of the year, according to chief nuclear officer Riedewaan Bakardien.
To get the licence extended Eskom is required to conduct studies and other maintenance and project work, like the steam generator replacement, he explained.
The steam generator replacement programme for Unit 1 will go ahead as planned, and this is expected to start in September 2022. Two of the steam generators for unit 1 will arrive in the country in August and September. The third steam generator will arrive in November but may arrive earlier in October.
“It is not true what the people against nuclear are saying that the expected life comes to an end at the end of the warranty period. It is just like with your car. The stipulated period is for licensing and has nothing to do with the operational capacity of the reactor. The refurbishments will add three of four more percent of capacity,” Kemm said.
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