And now Koeberg Unit One is offline too!
Posted on July 26th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,561 views
Oops! Now we are really in for it. On Friday, July 25 2008 at 17h20, Koeberg’s Unit One tripped. Both of Koeberg’s power generating units are now offline which means the national grid just lost 1800MW of power.
Starting Monday, Capetonians are being told to brace for a resumption of rolling black outs. Koeberg’s staff have been recalled and they are spending the weekend working on the problem in staggered shifts.
Right now, Eskom is still investigating the cause of Unit One’s trip. They don’t know what caused it nor how long it will take to fix.
The public is being advised to stock up on candles and gas lamps, because power could be shut off at any point now.
FURTHER READING:
Power crisis time – again.
Tags: electricity crisis, Koeberg, Unit One
Filed under electricity, Eskom |
9 Responses to “And now Koeberg Unit One is offline too!”
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sailor Says:
July 26th, 2008 at 17:11This will have an effect on all of us. This news has just ruined an other wise nice quiet weekend. I better go get those gas bottles re-filled.
sailors last blog post..Spot the Difference
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justBcoz Says:
July 26th, 2008 at 20:27Dammit! I guess another power crisis was bound to happen sooner or later … thanks for the heads up Richard, I haven’t had time to catch up on any news and would have been taken by surprise. At least I can prepare at home. But hells, the business is another story … !! Urgh.
justBcozs last blog post..Welcome to hell!
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Richard Catto Says:
July 26th, 2008 at 21:24@sailor: Lucky for you. I have don’t even have candles!
When I got to the store, they were sold out. A greazy little fellow outside the shop offered me half a stump of a candle for R100. I laughed in his face. Maybe I should run back and see if I can still find him.
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Stuart Says:
July 27th, 2008 at 13:12EEk that is not good, I am in Australia myself however we have been lucky that we have never had this kind of issue.
@Richard, that is terrible R100 for a half of a stump of a candle… lol that would get you around 20 minutes of light?
StuartStuarts last blog post..My monkey has a favour to askĀ
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Censorbugbear Says:
July 28th, 2008 at 10:31If you were a real journalist Catto you’d be out there at Koeberg’s harbour, taking water samples and testing the environment with a Geiger counter instead of singing drunken sailor songs. There’s something really wrong at Koeberg and you live within the 30-km radius danger zone. Most of the country’s most capable nuclear engineers and electrical engineers have already emigrated and the most of Koeberg now is staffed by AA-appointed, unqualified fools.
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Censorbugbear Says:
July 28th, 2008 at 11:43in 2006, former Pelindaba workers — one with radiation poisoning — and environmental protection group Earthlife South Africa had gathered at Church Square to warn of a possible nuclear disaster. Amidst constant harassment from the Pretoria metro-cops, they still managed to warn that the two old French-built reactors were experiencing considerable difficulty to keep themselves online because of the massive brain-drain of experienced nuclear and electricical engineers.
Also see the nuclear-power debate on their SA website:
http://www.environment.co.za/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1066Their warning was issued on the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster that resulted in the deaths of up to 60,000 people and the permanent pollution of the entire environment in a whopping 120-km radius in this Ukrainian region. Please note that most of greater Cape Town’s residents live within a 30-km radius of Koeberg…
Members of this group and former Pelindaba employees — one worker, Simon Malatji, 36, said he was dying of cancer due to his exposure to radiation on the job — all gathered at Church Square under Oom Paul’s statue in Pretoria to mourn he disaster — and also to speak up about the risks of nuclear power.
http://www.environment.co.za/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=22‘If an accident… happened at Koeberg you can say goodbye to Cape Town’
The gathering was constantly being disrupted by Pretoria Metro police which supposedly were worried about the Paul Kruger statue and its historic bronze group of statues made by world-famous sculptor Anton van Wouw. In spite of constant destruction to this statue, the Pretoria cops only worried when an anti-nuclear group was protesting at its base…
Dr David Fig of the Nuclear Energy Costs The Earth Campaign (Nectec) has studied the nuclear industry for the last 20 years and warned that ‘if an accident of the same scale as Chernobyl happened at Koeberg you can say goodbye to all of greater Cape Town and the wine, fishing, tourism and fruit industry in the entire area.
He even wrote a book about it, “Uranium Road’: email him at biowatch@mweb.co.za
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=411181
“We are not prepared for a disaster like that. The lesson we should learn from Chernobyl is that nuclear technology is problematic and risky and when there are accidents they are difficult to rectify, this top expert already warned a full two years ago…
“It is a secret industry; there is no transparency which we feel is required to make a successful energy industry,’ he said…
Fig said at that time that nearly R16-billion would be needed to build a demonstration pebble bed-modular reactor and that would not even include the running costs.
To operate the reactor, uranium mined in South Africa would also have to be enriched overseas then transported from Durban to Gauteng for processing before finally being transported to the reactor site near Koeberg. Hence his book, Uranium Road.
Fig said transporting enriched uranium on South Africa’s highly dangerous roads – where dreadful, deadly accidents occur each day due to poor driving-habits by millions of uneducated, highly disruptive road-users — would moreover, put many thousands of people at risk of exposure to radiation.
Pelindaba employee is dying of cancer:
Former Pelindaba employee Simon Malatji said he was exposed to radiation and dangerous chemicals during his years at the centre. “I have seen people die after exposure to radiation.”
Malatji said his life had been ruined. “I worked for peanuts for that company and now I all I have to show are the scars.”
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20060426010920746C119526
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Richard Catto Says:
July 28th, 2008 at 17:33@Censorbugbear: My dear Ms Stuijt, I am not in fact a journalist. I am merely a blogger.
There are some things that I do investigate first hand, but Nuclear physics is not one of them.
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Obaht Says:
July 29th, 2008 at 01:37Oh Man,
Say what you will, but I am so glad I am out of the ANC toilet that SA has become.
What a bloody mess!
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Richard Catto Says:
July 29th, 2008 at 01:54@Obaht: You’re way too negative about South Africa’s prospects, Obaht!
Jacob Zuma is most likely going to be extended amnesty and his corruption trial halted.
I’m looking forward very much to his presidency. I think he’s going to get South Africa back on track. I don’t think you realise just how badly SA has been managed under Mbeki.
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