Koeberg Unit Two down – AGAIN!

Posted on November 6th, 2006 by Richard Catto 1,631 views

Eskom investigates Koeberg reactor shutdown

The Mail and Guardian article (linked above) contains a factual error. Koeberg’s two nuclear reactors each produce 900MW (Megawatts) of power for a total of 1800MW, not 900MW as stated in the M&G article. I know this from the background research I did earlier this year for the article I wrote at that time regarding Koeberg’s problems.

Koeberg Unit Two shut itself down automatically yesterday (Sunday Nov 5 2006). It is now operating at only 6% capacity, while they struggle to get it back up again and investigate what caused the shut down.

This is the ongoing saga of electricity supply problems in the Western Cape. In August this year, Eskom said that it was not negligent in respect of the power outages the Western Cape experienced earlier this year.

Eskom is the company responsible for supplying ALL of South Africa’s electricity needs. Yet another South African monopoly. Cities are, however, allowed to operate their own local power stations.

However South Africa’s electricity regulator did find them to be negligent and guilty of not living up to their licensing agreement.

Then there are a lot of meelie mouthed words by the head of Eskom, Mr. Thulani Gcabashe, but the bottom line is that Eskom did not have its shit together then, and perhaps not even now, because Koeberg has suddenly become unreliable after all these years of giving reliable service. The problem is that basic maintenance procedures are not being followed.

Gcabashe is a bullshitter.

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