Durban — Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station successfully completed its 24th outage since it first started to generate electricity. The unit is currently synchronised onto the grid and will load up to full capacity by next week, Eskom said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
This will give Eskom a reliable electricity output of approximately 900MW for close on 400 days, helping ease the supply constraints on the rest of the power station fleet.
"Unit 1 continues to operate as normal at full capacity, and is scheduled for a refuelling and maintenance outage starting in February 2021.
"This was a planned and regular refuelling outage, where the nuclear fuel in the reactor core was replaced with new fuel. All the nuclear fuel is removed from the core during a refuelling outage, the reactor cavity drained, and cleaned, then refilled before the fuel is placed into the core," Eskom said.
During the outage, routine maintenance was performed on the plant in order to keep the station performing safely and optimally.
“While many maintenance activities can be performed without switching off the station, there are some more intrusive activities that can only be performed when the unit is shut down,” Eskom said.
Koeberg staff performed the refuelling and maintenance, with the assistance of 32 international specialists.
These crews arrived in South Africa on July 31 and followed all the Covid-19 protocols, including screening, testing, and quarantine.
The outage began on August 11.
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