The Koeberg Power Plant was meant to be producing an additional 920 megawatts of electricity by now, but its unit two is yet to return to service.
The unit was shut down for maintenance work earlier this year and was meant to be back during June.
Now the failing power utility says it may only return at the end of this month.
Eskom’s Chief Operation Officer, Jan Oberholzer, says some unexpected issues has resulted in the delay, says teams are working to bring the unit back.
“There is total commitment from the team to return this unit safely, as soon as possible. We had some delays, and one of the unexpected delays had been the polar crane. Fortunately, we’ve dealt with that now and the activities are progressing. We are working very hard to return that unit.”
Meanwhile, The Koeberg Alert Alliance says it’ll be crucial to have skilled staff available at the nuclear power station in the coming years.
This follows the resignation of the Chief Nuclear Officer at Eskom’s Koeberg Power station, Riedewaan Bakardien.
The Alliance’s Peter Becker says Bakardien’s move is the latest in a string of resignations in the nuclear field.
He says it follows the resignation of the National Nuclear Regulator’s Chief Executive Officer and a number of technical staff at Koeberg.
