South Africa

Koeberg, South Africa's sole nuclear power plant was shut down for a third time in two-weeks on Wednesday. The result was rolling blackouts that blanketed the Western and Eastern Cape as Eskom tried to juggle power by redirecting it around the local power grid. A timeline of the last two weeks :

11 November - Koeberg's Unit One was out for repairs and its Unit Two tripped, "Their reactor shut down, the turbines shut down, which is all in accordance with normal safety procedure."

16 November - a veld fire under the transmission lines from Koeberg causes the plant to shutdown automatically.

23 November - a "controlled shutdown" by the plant "initiated due to the chemical concentration in the safety injection system being slightly below specification," 

 

There was also a shutdown in October that was apparently caused by "ageing equipment" at the plant.

Officials at Koeberg have dismissed concerns about safety saying nothing "abnormal" has occurred, although a few additional "tests" will take place. Environmentalist are not convinced and are pressing for an independent probe into safety at the plant.

What I have noticed recently in the news in SA is a rise in the number of stories concerning power cuts and blackouts. There also seems to be a number of stories doing the rounds about the "imminent" power crunch that SA will be facing in the not to distant future. Definitely a developing story here...