Another stab at inefficient and unsafe standards at the Koeberg plant made by anti-nuclear activists Koeberg Action Alliance (KAA) stemming from an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, which was released earlier this year, has been dismissed as out of context by Eskom, the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) and nuclear experts.
In a statement yesterday, KAA drew attention to an IAEA report from an on-site review in March, which pointed out 14 major vulnerabilities in Eskom’s management of Africa’s only nuclear reactor.
Unit 2 of the reactor is currently under refurbishment, which has incurred delays after issues were identified with the steam generators that were meant to be changed in time for it to return to generation by September.
Eskom intends to refurbish both units and extend the operational life of the reactor by another 20 years.
The KAA drew attention to concerns by the IAEA.
Koeberg Alert Alliance spokesperson Lydia Peterson said yesterday: “That is 14 safety concerns too many. It is worrying to see phrases like ‘not effective, not adequate, cannot be ensured, not consistently managed, incomplete, and not fully functional’ used to describe the plant systems.
“The current operating licence for Eskom, issued by the NNR, expires in July 2024. For Eskom to comply with IAEA safety standards within the time frame seems impossible.”
Eskom said yesterday it had followed the IAEA safety standards and guidance documents in its approach to ageing management in preparation for the Safety Long-Term Operation (Salto).
It said these IAEA standards and guides were used during IAEA Salto review missions during which technical experience and practices are exchanged at a working level aimed at strengthening the programme, procedures and practices implemented at Koeberg, to evaluate the utility during the peer reviews.
“The IAEA review is, therefore, neither a regulatory inspection nor an audit against national requirements. Eskom has always considered the view of the international nuclear community as extremely important as they provide an independent and unbiased opinion. The Salto mission report of March 2022 is such an example, which evaluates the efforts commissioned to justify extending the operational life of Koeberg,” it said.
Gino Moonsamy, the NNR manager of communications and stake holder relations, said the NNR, which was due to receive Eskom's application for a new nuclear operator licence when the current one expired next year, had no concerns about safety issues at Koeberg.
Moonsamy said the regulator considered numerous factors in processing applications, the IAEA report being one of them, but since the international organisation had no enforcement authority, its recommendations were made to maintain international standards.
“That report listed good practices and areas of improvement. We welcome such reviews and look at the outcome of the review as it helps when Eskom applies for licensing because we consider many factors. But we are not concerned about safety. Koeberg is not going to blow up,” Moonsamy said.
Nuclear physicist Kelvin Kemm said team leader Gabor Petofi, a senior nuclear safety officer at the IAEA, had declared the plant to be fine and listed all the long-term aspects to be improved on.
“Koeberg is one of the best-run plants in the world. The IAEA team’s review did not have any problems, but had to keep Eskom on its toes in monitoring all aspects of safety for the plant.
"With the new steam generators, you could get up to an extra 200 megawatts of power out of the reactor. No faults were found. All they did was to say keep an eye on this or that,“ Kemm said.
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