Anticipating an Energy Crisis, ESKOM Plans for 20,000 MW of Nuclear Capacity by 2025

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With South Africa facing a major energy crisis in the next 10 years, the government’s power utility company ESKOM (Johannesburg, South Africa) recently announced its plans to build five nuclear power stations, which would add 20,000 megawatts (MW) of total capacity. Official approvals for the nuclear power buiding program have yet to be granted.

The plan calls for construction in five locations: Thyspunt, Bantamsklip, Duynefontein, (at the existing site of Koeberg Nuclear Facility), Brazil and Schulpfontein. Each site will have 4,000MW of capacity.

ESKOM is conducting preliminary evaluations for the construction of the proposed power stations. The plan calls for all facility units to be powered by conventional Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR). Consultations with leading nuclear technology suppliers Areva (Paris, France) and Westinghouse, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, are currently underway.

Abreva has been assisting ESKOM with the maintenance of its 1,800 MW Koeberg Nuclear Facility near Cape Town, South Africa. Westinghouse has been involved with helping ESKOM with its Pebble Bed Module Reactor (PBMR) Technology, a nuclear reactor capable of about 124 MW. It is smaller in size, does not need offline refueling and is environmentally cleaner to operate than conventional reactors. ESKOM has researched and developed the PMBR technology over the past 15 years and also has construction plans for the next five years. If this pilot project is successful, the company plans to construct 24-30 of the units to further assist in reaching its electrical generation needs by 2025.

However, environmental lobbyists, such as Earthlife Africa, and the parliament have expressed concerns about the plans. The Koeberg units’ mechanical issues have been questioned in regard to training, environmental impact and their reliability. ESKOM currently employed an independent consultant to address the environmental-impact concerns.

These speculations are fed by the previous issues surrounding Koeberg 01 and 02. Koeberg 01 went offline in December 2005 for more than a year because of poor maintenance practices, costing ESKOM more than $41 million to repair. Koeberg 02 experienced six major transmission incidents from November 2005-March 2006. The units have caused a great strain on the Western Cape region — in addition to the strain on the entire South African grid — which relies on them for more than 40% of the area’s generation.

The proposed 20,000 MW of nuclear generation will cost ESKOM approximately $3 million per MW to construct — about $60 billion if all projects are completed.

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