Koeberg nuclear power station
Encyclopedia
Koeberg nuclear power station is the only nuclear power station
in South Africa and the entire African continent. It is located 30 km north of Cape Town
, near Melkbosstrand
on the west coast of South Africa. Koeberg is owned and operated by the country's only national electricity supplier, Eskom
. The two reactors at the station form the cornerstone of the South African nuclear program
.
pressurised water reactors based on a design by Framatome of France. Koeberg supplies power to the national grid so that over-capacity can be redistributed to the rest of the country on an as-needed basis. Koeberg is rated at 1,800 MW, its average annual production is 13,668 GWh and it has two large turbine generators (2 × 900 MW).
The plant was constructed near Cape Town
to be the sole provider of power in the Western Cape
after fossil fuel
power stations were deemed too small and too expensive to be viable. Nuclear power was considered because it was more economical than transporting coal to the existing fossil-fuel power stations, and construction of new fossil-fuel power-stations, which would have required 300 m tall chimney
s to comply with clean-air legislation. Athlone Power Station
in the city was too small to provide Cape Town's needs, and the Paarden Island power station (itself too small) has been demolished.
The reactor at Koeberg is cooled by cold water from the Atlantic Ocean pumped through an isolated circuit at 80 tons a second. Low and intermediate level waste from Koeberg is transported by road in steel and concrete containers to a rural disposal site at Vaalputs, 600 km away in the Kalahari Desert
. The grounds of the nuclear plant form a 22 km² nature reserve open to the public containing more than 150 species of birds and half a dozen small mammal species.
The power plant was originally located outside the metropolitan area, whose growth has far-exceeded expectations in the intervening 20 years, so that the power plant is now close to suburban housing. The plant administration enforces maximum housing density regulations in case of evacuation, which precludes the construction of high rise buildings.
On 8 January 1982, the 70th anniversary of the formation of the African National Congress
, Umkhonto we Sizwe
, the armed wing of the ANC attacked Koeberg nuclear power plant while it was still under construction. Damage was estimated at R 500 million and the commissioning of the plant was put back by 18 months. In 2010, the bomber was identified as being Rodney Wilkinson.
In August 2002 twelve Greenpeace
activists obtained access to the station. Six of them scaled the wall of the plant to hang up an anti-nuclear protest banner. The twelve were arrested and fined.
At the end of 2005, Koeberg started experiencing numerous technical difficulties. On 11 November 2005, a fault on a transmission busbar caused the reactor to go into safe mode, cutting supply to most of the Western Cape for about two hours. On 16 November a fire under a 400kV transmission line
caused the line to trip, causing severe voltage dips which resulted in Koeberg once again shutting down. Various parts of the Cape were left without electricity for hours at a time. On the evening of 23 November, a routine inspection of the backup safety system revealed a below-spec concentration of an important chemical, resulting in a controlled shutdown of the reactor. Due to the sufficiency of backup supply, major power cuts were not experienced until Friday 25 November, when the backup capacity began running out. At this point, rotational load shedding was employed, with customers being switched off in stages for most of the day. Koeberg was re-synchronised to the national grid on Saturday 26 November.
On Sunday 25 December 2005, the generator of Unit 1 was damaged. While the generator was being powered up after scheduled refuelling and maintenance, a loose bolt, which was left inside the generator caused severe damage, forcing it to be shut down. Subsequent to the unexpected unavailability of Unit 1, Unit 2 was also brought down for scheduled refuelling, resulting in a severe shortage of supply to the Western Cape. This resulted in widespread load shedding in order to maintain the stability of the network. A replacement rotor for Unit 1 was shipped in from France and the unit was brought back into operation in May 2006.
On 18 and 19 February 2006 large parts of the Western Cape again experienced blackouts due to a controlled shutdown of Koeberg. According to Eskom and the City of Cape Town, power cuts were to continue until 26 February 2006, however power supply problems continued beyond this date.
The estimated economic losses due to the power cuts was over R 500 M as at February 2007, and was estimated to rise to possibly as high as R 2 billion.
On 12 September 2010, 91 members of staff were contaminated with Cobalt-58 dust in an incident that appears confined to the plant.
, and anti-war activists concerned about nuclear proliferation
and use of atomic weapons. Current campaigns against nuclear energy are being run by Earthlife Africa
and Koeberg Alert
.
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
in South Africa and the entire African continent. It is located 30 km north of Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, near Melkbosstrand
Melkbosstrand
Melkbosstrand is a coastal village and beach with just over 17000 inhabitants, located on the South West Coast of South Africa, 35 km north of Cape Town....
on the west coast of South Africa. Koeberg is owned and operated by the country's only national electricity supplier, Eskom
Eskom
Eskom is a South African electricity public utility, established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission by the government of South Africa in terms of the Electricity Act . It was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie . The two acronyms were combined in 1986 and...
. The two reactors at the station form the cornerstone of the South African nuclear program
South African nuclear program
As a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, South Africa uses nuclear science for peaceful means. The South African nuclear program includes both nuclear energy and nuclear medicine...
.
Design
Koeberg contains two uraniumUranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
pressurised water reactors based on a design by Framatome of France. Koeberg supplies power to the national grid so that over-capacity can be redistributed to the rest of the country on an as-needed basis. Koeberg is rated at 1,800 MW, its average annual production is 13,668 GWh and it has two large turbine generators (2 × 900 MW).
The plant was constructed near Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
to be the sole provider of power in the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
after fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
power stations were deemed too small and too expensive to be viable. Nuclear power was considered because it was more economical than transporting coal to the existing fossil-fuel power stations, and construction of new fossil-fuel power-stations, which would have required 300 m tall chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
s to comply with clean-air legislation. Athlone Power Station
Athlone Power Station
Athlone Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station in Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa.The power station was commissioned in 1962 with 6 turbines with a nominal capacity of 180 megawatts, and operated by the City of Cape Town. Between 1985 and 1994 the station was held on standby,...
in the city was too small to provide Cape Town's needs, and the Paarden Island power station (itself too small) has been demolished.
The reactor at Koeberg is cooled by cold water from the Atlantic Ocean pumped through an isolated circuit at 80 tons a second. Low and intermediate level waste from Koeberg is transported by road in steel and concrete containers to a rural disposal site at Vaalputs, 600 km away in the Kalahari Desert
Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending , covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert...
. The grounds of the nuclear plant form a 22 km² nature reserve open to the public containing more than 150 species of birds and half a dozen small mammal species.
The power plant was originally located outside the metropolitan area, whose growth has far-exceeded expectations in the intervening 20 years, so that the power plant is now close to suburban housing. The plant administration enforces maximum housing density regulations in case of evacuation, which precludes the construction of high rise buildings.
History
Construction of the plant began in 1976, and Unit 1 was synchronised to the grid on 4 April 1984. Unit 2 followed on 25 July 1985.On 8 January 1982, the 70th anniversary of the formation of the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
, Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe , translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress which fought against the South African apartheid government. MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961...
, the armed wing of the ANC attacked Koeberg nuclear power plant while it was still under construction. Damage was estimated at R 500 million and the commissioning of the plant was put back by 18 months. In 2010, the bomber was identified as being Rodney Wilkinson.
In August 2002 twelve Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
activists obtained access to the station. Six of them scaled the wall of the plant to hang up an anti-nuclear protest banner. The twelve were arrested and fined.
At the end of 2005, Koeberg started experiencing numerous technical difficulties. On 11 November 2005, a fault on a transmission busbar caused the reactor to go into safe mode, cutting supply to most of the Western Cape for about two hours. On 16 November a fire under a 400kV transmission line
Transmission line
In communications and electronic engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable designed to carry alternating current of radio frequency, that is, currents with a frequency high enough that its wave nature must be taken into account...
caused the line to trip, causing severe voltage dips which resulted in Koeberg once again shutting down. Various parts of the Cape were left without electricity for hours at a time. On the evening of 23 November, a routine inspection of the backup safety system revealed a below-spec concentration of an important chemical, resulting in a controlled shutdown of the reactor. Due to the sufficiency of backup supply, major power cuts were not experienced until Friday 25 November, when the backup capacity began running out. At this point, rotational load shedding was employed, with customers being switched off in stages for most of the day. Koeberg was re-synchronised to the national grid on Saturday 26 November.
On Sunday 25 December 2005, the generator of Unit 1 was damaged. While the generator was being powered up after scheduled refuelling and maintenance, a loose bolt, which was left inside the generator caused severe damage, forcing it to be shut down. Subsequent to the unexpected unavailability of Unit 1, Unit 2 was also brought down for scheduled refuelling, resulting in a severe shortage of supply to the Western Cape. This resulted in widespread load shedding in order to maintain the stability of the network. A replacement rotor for Unit 1 was shipped in from France and the unit was brought back into operation in May 2006.
On 18 and 19 February 2006 large parts of the Western Cape again experienced blackouts due to a controlled shutdown of Koeberg. According to Eskom and the City of Cape Town, power cuts were to continue until 26 February 2006, however power supply problems continued beyond this date.
The estimated economic losses due to the power cuts was over R 500 M as at February 2007, and was estimated to rise to possibly as high as R 2 billion.
On 12 September 2010, 91 members of staff were contaminated with Cobalt-58 dust in an incident that appears confined to the plant.
Opposition to Koeberg
South Africa's fledgling nuclear industry has seen its fair share of opposition, chiefly from environmentalists concerned about safety issues such as radioactive wasteRadioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
, and anti-war activists concerned about nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
and use of atomic weapons. Current campaigns against nuclear energy are being run by Earthlife Africa
Earthlife Africa
Earthlife Africa is a South African environmental and anti-nuclear organization founded in August 1988, in Johannesburg. Initially conceived of as a South African version of Greenpeace, the group began by playing a radical, anti-apartheid, activist role. ELA is arguably now more of a reformist...
and Koeberg Alert
Koeberg Alert
Koeberg Alert formed in 1983 and started out as a local campaign against South Africa's nuclear programme, in particular the construction of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Koeberg Alert is possibly the country's first activist green movement, apart from Nan Rice's Dolphin Action and Protection...
.
General references
- Nuclear Tourist. Includes a picture.
- Koeberg details
- Evacuation modelling for Koeberg
- Google Map Satellite Image
- January 2006 Eskom media release on Koeberg's problems.
See also
- List of nuclear reactors
- Koeberg AlertKoeberg AlertKoeberg Alert formed in 1983 and started out as a local campaign against South Africa's nuclear programme, in particular the construction of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Koeberg Alert is possibly the country's first activist green movement, apart from Nan Rice's Dolphin Action and Protection...
- List of power stations in South Africa