The refuelling outage is planned for about two months and Unit 2 is expected back on line by May 2017. The unit has been on stream without major interruption since December 2015, following its previous outage.
Koeberg Unit 1 is currently operating optimally and is contributing 930MW to the national grid.
Every 15 to 18 months, each of the two units at Koeberg is shut down for refuelling, inspection and maintenance. This routine maintenance is part of Eskom’s overall maintenance programme for its fleet of generation units. Outages are scheduled so as to avoid having both units out of service at the same time and to avoid the winter months in each year.
During these routine outages, one third of the used nuclear fuel is replaced with new fuel. Maintenance, plant modifications, inspections and statutory work to ensure that international safety standards continue to be met and that reliable plant performance continues, are performed.
