TRISTEN TAYLOR: At Koeberg, safety delayed is safety denied
Everyone agrees that protection is urgent, but its implementation and regulation is consistently delayed
In November 2014 Eskom called together a group of local and international experts to address the serious cracking, corrosion and delamination that was affecting Koeberg’s containment buildings, especially those of unit 2. The panel’s task was to investigate how to halt the damage and ensure both units would be safe for a long-term operation (LTO) to extend Koeberg’s life for another 20 years.
A January 2015 expert report reads that “the containment structures are at a very advanced state of reinforcement corrosion damage, and future reinforcement corrosion damage in presently unrepaired areas is expected to develop exponentially with time”. Moreover, the experts pointed out that unless a long-term solution was found “the end of the operational service life of the containment structures may be reached soon”...
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