‘Middle-aged’ Koeberg nuclear plant a disaster?

When nuclear power plants go wrong, it has devastating consequences.

Two of the most famous are of course the Chernobyl disaster which occurred on 26 April, 1986, at the number 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.

The other was in 2011, at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan.

There have been more than a few problems over the years of varying intensity around the world and, while some have been less intense than others, Fukushima has shown the reason for a meltdown is sometimes out of human hands.

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When South Africa’s only nuclear plant Koeberg was finally fully brought online in 1985, it was given a lifespan of up to 2024 when its licence to operate expires.

Koeberg has suffered problems in the past, no-one will ever forget the “bolt in the turbine” fiasco.

With Eskom wanting to extend Koeberg’s lifespan another 20 years, questions are being asked by civil society organisations about the wisdom of such a plan.

“There has been lack of information for the safety case, which has been a major obstacle to proper public involvement in this decision,” said the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute executive director Francesca de Gasparis.

South African Nuclear Energy Corporation chair David Nicholls said Koeberg was nowhere near the end of its life span, and can be classified as “middle-aged”.

He also said extending the life span of nuclear stations was common practice internationally, saying some nuclear plants in the United States operate for about 60 to 100 years before being shut down.

Given our reliance on the “middle-aged” plant in the tunnel of load shedding where the light is switched off to save power, hard questions need to be asked over its safety – and what we would do without it.

Failure to do so could result in disastrous consequences.

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