Cape Town – Eskom says the situation is “fully under control” in response to concerns that sea air has severely damaged the concrete structure of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station containment building, apparently found to have cracked around the entire circumference.
The Koeberg Alert Alliance (KAA) said it was notified of structural problems at Koeberg by a concerned insider.
In August last year, KAA made two requests for information under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) legislation.
The information received revealed that 40 years of exposure to sea air had damaged the concrete of the containment buildings and, at one stage, the concrete containment dome was found to have cracked around the entire 110m circumference, the KAA said.
The provided 31-page report, which refers to repairs done up until 2018, has 11 pages entirely blacked out and various other sections, photos and tables redacted.
“What is in the report is deeply disturbing and contradicts claims of safety,” the KAA’s Peter Becker said.
“There should be no need to hide the extent of the damage or the associated costs of the repairs.
“There is a great need for transparency from Eskom, as the proposed 20-year extension of Koeberg’s lifespan and additional nuclear builds are being debated.”
In a statement, Eskom said it was fully cognisant of the risk of corrosion of civil structures, as a result of the station being located in a corrosive environment.
“Ongoing testing on the Koeberg containment buildings has proven the structures to be capable of withstanding the most severe accident.
“This containment programme has been managed closely since construction,” the parastatal said.
The main concern to the longterm system health of the containment buildings is the deterioration of the externally exposed concrete surfaces, due to chloride ingress that causes reinforcement corrosion and the potential effect on
the pre-stressing tendons.
“Concrete repairs have been implemented to reinstate areas of the external façades, where spalling and delamination occurred due to reinforcement corrosion.
“A long-term solution to prevent rebar and tendon corrosion due to chloride ingress is being implemented as previously recommended by a team of international civil engineering experts.
“The information from the ongoing testing, inspections and maintenance is included in the assessments being implemented as part of the work required for Koeberg’s life extension, and Eskom remains confident the issue is fully under control.”