Power update: The Koeberg pump may only be fixed by Sunday

Eskom expects that the Koeberg nuclear power station outside Cape Town will only be fully up and running again by the end of the coming weekend, spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha told Fin24 on Wednesday morning.

The power utility suddenly announced Stage 4 load shedding early on Tuesday evening after Koeberg Unit 1 tripped. According to Eskom it was due to a fault with the  sea water pump that cools the reactors.

READ | Eskom: More stage 4 load shedding on Wednesday - and Koeberg repairs could take days

Mantshantsha told Fin24 on Tuesday evening that there was no safety risk "whatsoever" related to the fault and that it had absolutely nothing to do with the reactor.

Koeberg supplies around 1 860 MW to the national grid. Around 930 MW of power were lost with the disconnection of Unit 1.

Fin24 reported early in January of the Koeberg Unit 1 being switched back on after it was out of commission for planned maintenance.

No, not the primary (reactor) or secondary cooling loop. It was the tertiary (steam condenser) sea water cooling circulating water pump set for Koeberg Unit 1 that had a problem and caused the shut down of the Unit 1 nuclear reactor.
See https://t.co/UKOT7K9LKs

— Chris Yelland (@chrisyelland) March 11, 2020